Wichita Falls Pundit
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05-24-2025 - 11:52 AM - I contacted a station in Charlestown State Park (US-2253) in Indiana on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program. POTA hunter count: 530.
05-24-2025 - Area Amateur (ham) Radio Operators usually have an informal breakfast gathering at Cracker Barrel at 8:00 AM on Saturdays. If you have questions about Ham Radio, they have answers. Wow, that sounded like an old Radio Shack commercial!
05-24-2025 - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing - National Current Ops / Monitoring – May 23–24, 2025
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• No significant incidents/operations
Hazard Monitoring:
• Severe Thunderstorms – Southern Plains
• Heavy Rain/Flash Flooding – Central/Southern Plains, Middle/Lower Mississippi Valleys
• Fire Weather – Central Great Basin to the Southwest
• Tropical Activity
Eastern Pacific:
• Disturbance 1: High (70%)
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• Approvals: Major Disaster Declarations – MS and KY
Event Monitoring:
• No significant events
05-24-2025 - Some weekend Wichita Falls 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 Airport / SAFB (119.750 & 122.950 MHz), and the BNSF Railroad (160.920 MHz). Get more SCANNING TARGETS here!
05-24-2025 - 6:45 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 95.6% Kemp: 100.0% Kickapoo: 100.0%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 98.2% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (97.8%) to determine drought stage.
05-24-2025 - 6:45 AM - 6:00 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 11,482 Megawatts.
05-24-2025 - 6:45 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Heat index values as high as 102. South wind 10 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 10pm. Increasing clouds, with a low around 74. South southeast wind 11 to 14 mph becoming southwest in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph.
05-24-2025 - 6:30 AM - Good Morning! It's Saturday. I don't have anything planned. I could mow my yard, but it's not that long. It'll be fine until after the rains if we get any. Maybe the 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band will show more life today than yesterday, so I can make a few CW (Morse code) contacts. If you're in line at Starbucks at Kemp & Kell in Wichita Falls, leave now and drive across the street to Frank & Joe's Coffee in Parker Square. You can go to Starbucks tomorrow! My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
05-23-2025 - At 8:00 PM, I hear the Net Control Station for the North Central Texas Simplex Net on 146.580 MHz in Wise County. I'm not hearing any of the stations checking in. Tune in with your scanner radio. You'll need a good outside antenna to listen to this bunch.
05-23-2025 - At 5:45 PM, the Local Group is on CB Radio Channel 23. The band is quiet as far as skip goes, but I have a lot of local noise (static) in my area. These guys have big signals, so it doesn't matter much.
05-23-2025 - At 1:00 PM, the 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band is asleep, so no Parks on the Air® contacts for me right now. For no reason that I can explain, I have no real interest in the other ham HF (High Frequency) bands these days. I'm returning to CB Radio to see what's happening there.
BUY TWO-WAY RADIOS & SCANNERS!
05-23-2025 - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing - National Current Ops / Monitoring – May 22-23, 2025
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• No new significant incidents / operations
Hazard Monitoring:
• Severe Thunderstorms – Central/Southern Plains
• Critical Fire Weather – Southwest
• Tropical Activity:
Eastern Pacific:
• Disturbance 1: Medium (60%)
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• Approvals: Major Disaster Declarations – OK, MO (2), NE, KS, IA, TX, AR
Event Monitoring:
• No significant events
05-23-2025 - At 9:30 AM, an oversized load is going through town, with drivers and pilot cars communicating on CB Radio Channel 19. Band conditions are quiet, making communications easy. Tune in!
05-23-2025 - This morning, I heard someone on CB Radio Channel 19, identified as "Walkie Talkie Two-Watt Radio in Wichita Falls," chatting it up with truckers. I have not heard this operator on the air before. Cool!
05-23-2025 - 6:45 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 95.5% Kemp: 100.0% Kickapoo: 100.0%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 98.1% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (97.75%) to determine drought stage.
05-23-2025 - 6:45 AM - 6:00 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 9,857 Megawatts.
05-23-2025 - 6:45 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny, with a high near 90. East wind 8 to 14 mph becoming south southeast in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. South southeast wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
05-23-2025 - 6:30 AM - Good Morning! It's Friday. My silly-ass Texas Rangers lost again. To be well informed, you don't have to be a CB Radio Operator or an Amateur (ham) Radio Operator. You only need a scanner radio to monitor local communications and a shortwave radio for distant communications. Yes, I know you have Internet. Good luck with that when the SHTF and the world goes dark. Do you think the government has an Internet kill switch? I wouldn't bet against some plan to disrupt our ability to communicate. It would be in the interest of national security, of course. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
05-22-2025 - Imagine my surprise when, as a young man at the pistol range in Basic Training at Fort Polk (now Johnson), the first time I dropped the hammer on a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, I could see the bullet traveling to the target. But did I really see the bullet? The second shot confirmed it. I did see the bullet and every bullet after that. Of course I saw it - it's a big, slow round. But what did I know back then?