RadioMan763™
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06-20-2026 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It’s Saturday, and local Amateur (ham) Radio Operators meet informally for breakfast at 8:00 AM at the Pioneer #3 Restaurant located at Old Iowa Park Road and Sheppard Access Road. Look for vehicles with extra antennas and/or handheld radios on the tables inside. I might mow the yard today if the grass is dry. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 97. Southeast wind 3 to 7 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 73. Southeast wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
--- 6:10 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:15 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
---6:20 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 83.9% Kemp: 97.6% Kickapoo: 90.6%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.9% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (87.25%) to determine drought stage.
--- 6:30 AM - ERCOT (Texas) snapshot of grid conditions - ERCOT reports that conditions are normal and there is enough power for current demand with an operating reserve of 12,639 Megawatts.
--- 6:50 AM - I’m starting out on CB Radio this morning. It’s Saturday, and it just feels like a CB Radio morning. I’ll do the Ham Radio thing later. I’m referring to HF Ham Radio, the long-distance stuff. Of course, I always have the scanner radio going for Local Ham Radio and other “general” radio traffic.
--- 7:00 AM - Our two Farmers Market locations, 713 Ohio and 807 Austin, will open at 9:00 AM. Yes, we have two, just a few blocks apart, due to a slight vendor disagreement a few years ago. Hopefully, neither local is featuring a bad musical act. It has happened, and when it does, it makes for shopping Hell. That's my opinion, anyway. At the Ohio Street location, I once wanted to pay the so-called musician $20 to remain silent while I shopped.
--- 7:15 AM - UPDATED - International Space Station Passes Over Wichita Falls
--- 7:25 AM - Some Wichita Falls weekend radio scanning targets: Walmart 154.570 MHz, Allred Unit 153.815 MHz, Wichita County Jail 155.520 MHz, State Hospital 154.800 MHz city transit buses 453.5375 MHz, Wichita Valley Airport 122.800 MHz, Kickapoo Airport 122.700 MHz, Wichita Falls Regional Airports / SAFB 119.750 & 122.950 MHz, FAA ATC Fort Worth Center 132.925 MHz, and the BNSF Railroad 160.920 MHz. MORE!
--- 7:35 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 7:40 AM - This is a call for someone to paddle out to the middle of Lake Wichita in a canoe, stand-up paddle board, or truck tire inner tube, and make some two-way "maritime mobile" Hobby Radio contacts.
--- 7:54 AM - I contacted a station in Blue Spring Wildlife Management Area (US-9912) in Alabma on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 8:10 AM - I’ve owned four Baofeng UV-5R handheld Radios over the last dozen or so years. I bought the first unit for myself, then two more to give away. I eventually gave away that first unit. A few months ago, I bought another one. I figured it would make a good receiver, if nothing else. After all, it was just $25.00. Back in April or May, we had a tornado-warned thunderstorm passing by the north side of town. I grabbed the Baofeng and went outside, with the rest of the neighborhood, to watch the storm go by. The cheap Baofeng would not reliably receive the 146.940 MHz repeater being used by the storm spotters. After the event, I lovingly placed the Baofeng on the back patio and gave it a few love taps with a hammer. That was my last Baofeng. Because I don't use repeaters, I've never had much use for handheld radios. My next handheld purchase might be a Uniden scanner radio. I'll let you know.
9:21 AM - I contacted a station in Douglas State Fishing Lake (US-7387) in Kansas on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 1:40 PM - UPDATED - Consumer Product Safety Commission Recalls & Warnings
--- 3:00 PM - I'm reminded of the time, back in the late 1960s, I was invited to sit in on a local CB Radio club meeting. I recall one member boasting that his radio "kicked out" six watts. I was relatively new to the CB game, and I was impressed! By the way, I didn't join the club.
--- 3:34 PM - I saw this on the cover of an Amateur (ham) Radio logbook for sale on Amazon: "Amateur Radio: noun, a hobby, where people talk about their hobby, using their hobby." I couldn't have said it better myself.
--- 6:00 PM - I find it a little amusing when Ham Radio operators give their call sign, and then add "For ID," or "For identification purposes." Is there some other reason to give your call sign over the air, or anywhere else, for that matter?
--- 8:00 PM - Amateur Radio has "Worked All States", "Worked All Continents, DXCC (100 countries), and many other awards. Will the CB Radio world come up with similar awards since the 155.3-mile restriction was lifted back in 2017? Perhaps CB Radio QSL cards could make a comeback. I'm not sure some of the high-powered CB'ers really want to give out their actual location. Just a thought.