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04-28-2026 - 5:30 AM - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, and I have nothing planned for today. After pulling weeds yesterday, I decided to mow the yard. Today, I have a “stand-up” long-handled weed puller scheduled for delivery. If that pre-emergent had worked, I wouldn’t be pulling so many weeds! As you might guess, I have Morse code running in the background on the old Yeasu 857D. I was too busy to attempt any contacts yesterday. Let’s see what the day brings. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 5:35 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93. East wind 6 to 13 mph becoming west northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. North northeast wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
--- 5:42 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 11,886 Megawatts.
--- 5:45 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:50 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:55 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 85.1% Kemp: 95.7% Kickapoo: 87.9%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.2% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.55%) to determine drought stage.
--- 6:10 AM - UPDATED: International Space Station Passes Over Wichita Falls
--- 6:50 AM - Two Wichita Falls Amateur (ham) Radio Skywarn® storm spotters are discussing the storms that are approaching the city. I’m sure a decision will soon be taken on whether and what spotter action will be required. Tune in to the discussion and the action at 146.940 MHz on your scanner radio.
--- 6:55 AM - At this hour, a good place to be is either the Circle M Bakery at 2716 Old Iowa Park Rd, or Tommy's Donuts & Fried Rice at 2608 Old Iowa Park Rd. It's a little early for the fried rice at Tommy's. That comes later in the day, but it's worth waiting for. Circle M Bakery has great fried pies.
--- 7:15 AM - The Wichita Falls area Skywarn® storm spotter Net Control Station, WX5SPS, issued a weather update regarding the approaching storm. At least one spotter has been dispatched to the stadium to observe things. It appears this storm, which is tracking toward Wichita Falls, has the potential (radar-indicated) for golf-ball-size hail.--- 8:00 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 12:05 PM - NWS Weather Update - This Afternoon: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Sunny, with a high near 93. West southwest wind 10 to 13 mph becoming north northwest. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. North northeast wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
--- 5:00 PM - I didn't do any “radioing” yesterday because I was busy pulling weeds and mowing the lawn. I didn't do any “radioing” today, other than listening, because I was recovering from yesterday's weed-pulling and lawn-mowing. Let's see what happens tomorrow.
--- 6:15 PM - Take a look at the windows on the front side of the police station. They weren't always that narrow, but they became that way after one too many of the original large windows fell victim to slingshot-propelled ball bearings. More random Wichita Falls police snippets
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04-27-2026 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It’s Monday, and our local Amateur (ham) Radio Skywarn® storm spotters had an anxious evening yesterday. The storm that began over Wichita Falls and moved northeast produced hail, wall clouds, a funnel near the Wichita Falls Regional Airport, and even a report of a tornado on the ground in the Petrolia area. I’m not sure if any evidence of a tornado was found, as I didn't stay tuned for any after-action reporting. You can monitor future storm spotter activity at 146.940 MHz simplex for Wichita Falls and 146.800 MHz for Clay County. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny, with a high near 93. West southwest wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. West southwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming southeast after midnight.
--- 6:10 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:15 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:30 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 85.5% Kemp: 96.0% Kickapoo: 88.3%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.5% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.9%) to determine drought stage.
--- 6:40 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 11,798 Megawatts.
--- 7:05 - I'm starting my "radio" morning with the President McKinley on 40-channel scan, along with the Uniden BC365CRS scanner doing its thing. Of course, I still have Morse code running in the background on the old Yaesu 857D. What's happening in your radio shack? Outside the shack, I have some weed-pulling to do. I'm going to have to do the pre-emergent's job for it!
--- 8:55 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 9:00 AM - The next time you're in downtown Wichita Falls, Texas, get your binoculars and check out the bullet dents and holes in the flagpole finial atop the venerable First National Building at 8th and Indiana. Retired (old as dirt if they're still alive) cops will tell you that fellow officers used the ball for target practice during boring night shifts back in the "old" days. Shots were indeed fired, but it was hardly target practice on that terrible night! Full Story.
--- 10:00 AM - From the U.S. Federal Trade Commission - New FTC Data Show People Have Lost Billions to Social Media Scams - Social media was the costliest fraud contact method in 2025 and reported losses increased eightfold since 2020 - New data from the Federal Trade Commission show that, in 2025, nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam said that it started on social media,with reported losses reaching a staggering $2.1 billion. Social media scams produced far more in losses—an eightfold increase since 2020—than any other contact method used by scammers to reach consumers, according to the new data. The Data Spotlight notes that social media creates easy access to billions of people from anywhere in the world, making a scammer’s job easier at very little cost. Scammers may hack a user’s account, exploit what a user posts to figure out how to target them, or buy ads and use the same tools used by real businesses to target people by age, interests or shopping habits.
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04-26-2026 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It's Sunday, and the Wichita Amateur Radio Society will conduct its weekly informal net tonight at 8:00 PM on the club's 147.140 MHz repeater. Tune in with your scanner radio, or check in if you're a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. Also, listen for informal chatter on 146.520, 147.140, 147.570, and 223.500 MHz throughout the day and evening. Weekend contests will continue on the Amateur (ham) Radio HF (high Frequency) bands. (Ask Google for the frequencies!) Tune in with your shortwave radio. I didn't win the Powerball last night, but neither did anyone else. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
---- 6:15 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. South wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 71. South southeast wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
--- 6:20 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 11,083 Megawatts.
--- 6:25 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:30 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:35 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 85.3% Kemp: 95.9% Kickapoo: 88.1%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.4% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.7%) to determine drought stage.
--- 8:45 AM - The 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band is awash with Parks on the Air® and contest CW (Morse code) traffic in the CW subband. You might ask why I’m always on the 20-meter band and not 10, 12, 15, 17, 30, 40, 60, 80, or 160 meters. The answer is simple: the 20-meter band has all the activity that I need. Many Ham Radio operators work most or all the bands. When one goes quiet, they move to another. Many operators also chase operating awards for having made contact on all bands, all modes on all bands, and other categories. This is super cool, but those things don’t interest me. Some will say that if we don't use those bands, they'll take them away from us. I'm not going to let that be my problem. I do monitor the 40-meter band early in the morning just to get some Morse code “music” going before 20 meters opens up. But I don’t actually operate on 40 meters. If I hop from band to band, I’d never get off the radio, and there’s more to life than radio.
--- 9:00 AM - I haven't heard of this in over 30 years. It could still be happening. Gamblers would board a plane - free of charge or cheaply - at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport (now Regional Airport) that would take them to Las Vegas or some other gambling destination. The "free or cheap" condition was that you had to show that you had $200 in cash before you could board the plane. A police officer was present to provide security. You'd probably have to show $2,000 in cash today. I have no idea when these flights started or ended. Did they end?
--- 10:29 AM - I contacted a station in Floyd Bennett Field National Historic District (US-8081) in New York on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 1:00 PM - Whenever I see or hear on the radio that an oversized load is passing through town, I wonder how much secret government or civilian stuff is loaded onto trucks with Coca-Cola or some other brand name plastered across the side. Remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
--- 5:00 PM - Wichita Falls area Amateur (ham) Radio Skywarn® storm spotters are being activated in response to the storm building on the west side of Wichita Falls. Listen at 146.940 MHz on your scanner radio.