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04-23-2026 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It's Thursday, and the Clay County Amateur Radio Club will hold its emergency practice net tonight at 8:00 PM on the club's 146.800 MHz repeater. As far as I know, all licensed Amateur (ham) Radio Operators are invited to check in. Of course, anyone can tune in with a scanner radio. Coming up this morning: International Space Station School Contact - ASU Preparatory STEM Academy, Mesa, AZ, direct via WB7TJD (Chris Williams KJ5GE, Jack Hathaway KJ5NIV, or Sophie Adenot KJ5LTN). Contact is go for: Thu 2026-04-23 16:52:04 UTC (11:52 AM CDT) 58 deg. Listen for the ISS side of the contact on 145.800 MHz on your scanner radio. There's a good chance you can hear it from Wichita Falls. Right now, my Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:10 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 87. South wind 14 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Tonight: A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind 13 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.
--- 6:20 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:25 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 7:45 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 11,035 Megawatts.
--- 7:55 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 84.7% Kemp: 96.0% Kickapoo: 88.2%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.2% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.45%) to determine drought stage.
--- 8:20 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 11:05 AM - The recent rains remind me of the time Willard Scott of the Today show came to town to dedicate our new waterfalls. Due to flooding, only the top half of the waterfalls was visible. It was an interesting event.
--- 11:15 AM - Are you old enough to remember when the Seymour Drive-In sat on the southeast corner of Seymour Hwy and McNiel, where a plumbing business now sits? I have a fuzzy memory of watching a movie there. I was more of a Twin Falls Drive-In (Sheppard Access Road near Old Iowa Park Road) guy.
--- 1:15 PM - The 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band is still a little weak, so I'm listening for activity on CB Radio Channel 19. The CB Radio is quite dead as far as "skip" goes, so that makes it perfect for quiet local communications.
--- 2:50 PM - Our semi-new Crossroads Luxury RV Park at U.S. 287 and Loop 11 (the loop that doesn't loop) looked to be at least 50% full. This is good. I'm still waiting to hear Hobby Radio signals emanating from that location.
--- 5:30 PM - There was a lot of Amateur (ham) Radio chatter this evening on 146.520 MHz FM simplex. At the same time, the "Local Group" did their nightly thing on CB Radio Channel 23. Tune in or join in!
--- 6:15 PM - If I were to start an Amateur (ham) Radio club, the third position in the "chain of command" would be Director of Marketing. If I were president of an existing club, I would conduct a "person on the street" survey, asking people if they've heard of BARF, the Baofeng Amateur Radio Federation, or whatever the club name might be. If few or none have heard of it, my club needs a Director of Marketing. It would help if the Director knew a little about marketing. I'm not talking about a membership drive, but a simple "name recognition" drive.
--- 6:30 PM - Years ago, around 1982, to be more precise, an employee of Gibson's Discount Center at 605 12th Street would "super glue" a quarter coin to the sidewalk in front of the building and watch customers try to pry it up. One man wanted that quarter so badly that he went to his car and returned the tools needed to get the job done. In 1982, you could buy something with a quarter. By the way, Weatherford, Texas, still has a Gibson's.
--- 7:00 PM - A nice day trip (two days would be better) is a journey from Wichita Falls down U.S. 281 to Longhorn Caverns, located between Burnet and Marble Falls, and Natural Bridge Caverns, about 5 miles east of U.S. 281, just north of San Antonio. On the way to and from, stop at the Dutchman's Hidden Valley store on the north side of Hamilton. You might also check out the Crazy Water store about a block off the highway in Mineral Wells. Of course, it will be hard not to sleep over in San Antonio and dine on the River Walk. You could also try some 2-meter (Ham Radio) simplex contacts from the Tower of the Americas!
--- 8:30 PM - It occurred to me that both news media people and CB Radio operators have an "originality" problem. I sometimes think news media people have a "hot key" on their computers that spits out "alleged and allegedly" as needed. Few journalists bother with the challenge of finding alternative phraseology. In the CB Radio world, it's the tired, worn-out phrase "No doubt about it." We'll never get a break from that one as long as people think they must say it to "fit in" with the crowd.