RadioMan763™
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"It comes to you, this stuff just flies through the air, they send this information "beamed" out over the ******* place, you just got to know how to grab it, see, I know how to grab it." Kelso in the movie Heat.
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SPECIAL EVENT STATION: The Lake Whitney Amateur Radio Society will be on the air with the "Football/Futbol On The Air - the 2026 World Soccer Tournament" Special Event Station, call sign W5C, from June 11 to July 19, 2026 on 14.074 MHz. QSL to Ron Franklin, 120 PR 22223, Whitney, TX 76692.
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06-29-2026 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It’s Monday, and it looks like we have another hot, rain-free week ahead. Our lake levels are sliding back slightly each day, but that's to be expected until we get rain over those lakes. I have Morse code running in the background on the Amateur (ham) Radio band, and the scanner radio is going with local communications. If you have a shortwave radio, you can listen to the 7290 Traffic Net today from 10:00 AM to 12:00 NOON, and again from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM. These Amateur (ham) Radio Operators relay messages across the region. My Folgers Black Silk Coffee is ready.
--- 6:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. South wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. South wind 15 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 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: 82.9% Kemp: 97.3% Kickapoo: 89.7%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.3% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.3%) to determine drought stage.
--- 7:07 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 11,834 Megawatts.
7:15 AM - You haven't lived until you've walked into the web of one of those huge yellow and black Argiope "writing" spiders, aka Yellow garden spiders. It sounds like fabric ripping. Or, maybe that's what your brain tells you as you hit the ground screaming and trying to get it off of you. The fact that the spider took off upward into the tree makes no difference. The "writing" spiders are the kind that put that zig-zag pattern in the center of the web.
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06-28-2026 - 5:45 AM - Good Morning! It’s Sunday, and Amateur Radio Field Day continues with local Ham Radio Operators still at Kiwanis Park, making contacts worldwide under emergency power. I think the 24-hour event ends at 1:00 PM. Tonight at 8:00 PM, the Wichita Amateur Radio Society will conduct its weekly informal net on the club’s 147.140 MHz repeater. Tune in or check in. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 5:50 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Heat index values as high as 103. South wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 77. South wind 17 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
--- 6:00 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:10 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:15 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 83.1% Kemp: 97.6% Kickapoo: 89.9%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.5% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.5%) to determine drought stage.
--- 7:04 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 10,701 Megawatts.
--- 8:45 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 10:00 AM - Remember to keep 145.800 MHz in rotation on your scanner, as you never know when you'll hear an astronaut onboard the International Space Station talking to a school student on a scheduled contact or a random Ham Radio operator on the ground.
--- 11:50 AM - M-80 Firecrackers and the Mushroom Cloud at the Lake - The year was 1966. The location was a lake near San Antonio. How near, I don’t remember. The event was an overnight fishing trip. The players were my father, my two brothers, my father’s friend, and his son. Another important player was the campfire. But first, let’s go back in time a little. The rest of the story.
--- 2:55 PM - I haven't flown an airplane regularly in over 30 years, but I listen to their chatter on my scanner radio daily. About 7 or 8 years ago, I rented a plane and an instructor to assess my skills after a 24-year break. It was like I had flown the day before. My take-offs were non-eventful, and my landings were as smooth as ever. It is like riding a bike! The airspace designations and other things had changed, but an airplane is still an airplane. Besides, I let the instructor handle the radio and attend to other important matters. I was once a part-time flight instructor, so I decided to let him earn his pay.
--- 3:10 PM - I became interested in Amateur Radio as a kid in the early 1960s. I ordered study material from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), but never did anything with it. My CB Radio life began on Christmas Day, 1964, when I received a pair of Spacephone walkie-talkies. From then until 1982, it was CB Radio for me. Then I got a Bearcat 220 programmable scanner radio, and everything changed. The rest of the story.
--- 5:00 PM - A Ham Radio acquaintance of mine, now a Silent Key (meaning he's deceased), used to have three TVs (Channels 3, 6, and 7) running in his radio shack at news time. He could not believe that I didn't watch TV news. I haven't done so in probably 40 years. I don't recall a time when I sat down in front of the TV for the purpose of watching the news. I have a low tolerance for news talking heads, on TV or radio, and no "fear of missing out, or FOMO, as they say. If I pass through my wife's "girl cave," I might overhear some news while talking to her, but that's it. If it's important, I'll hear about it.
--- 6:00 PM - Now that Wichita Falls has a real hotel and convention center, will there be a hamfest? There's plenty of space to do so, plus people can sleep over! I'm doubtful. If a hamfest were a possibility, it would probably have been held by now at the Multi-Purpose Events Center. There's plenty of room at the MPEC, but no sleepover.
--- 8:00 PM - The Wichita Amateur Radio Society's weekly net did not happen tonight. There was either a repeater (147.140 MHz) glitch or a personnel glitch. I don’t know which. Next week, I guess.