WICHITA FALLS MAN
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A Hobby Radio and Wichita Falls Journal
COMING: International Space Station School Contact with Hillsboro Charter Academy, Purcellville, Virginia, direct via KQ4MAM (Sunita Williams KD5PLB) Wed 2024-12-11 12:46 PM 40 deg. Listen for the ISS side of the contact on your scanner radio at 145.800 MHz.
COMING: Cowtown Hamfest Jan. 17-18, 2025. Fri 3PM-7PM and Sat 7AM-3PM. 6901 Wichita Street, Forest Hill, Texas 76140. Talk In 146.94 Tone 110.9
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12-07-2024 - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing for December 7, 2024
National Current Ops / Monitoring for December 6-7, 2024
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• No new significant incidents / operations
Hazard Monitoring:
• Winter Weather – Pacific Northwest
• Heavy Snow – Great Lakes and Northeast
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• No new declaration activity
Event Monitoring:
• No significant events
12-07-2024 - Some local 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), and the BNSF Railroad (160.920 MHz).
12-07-2024 - 6:11 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly after 3pm. Cloudy, with a high near 55. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers before 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. South wind 6 to 8 mph.
12-07-2024 - 6:11 AM - NOAA SPACE WEATHER - Last 24 Hrs: Radio Blackouts (R - None) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None) Current: Radio Blackouts (R - None) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None). Solar Wind Speed: 362 km/sec Solar Wind Magnetic Fields: Bt 6 nT, Bz 1 nT Noon 10.7cm Radio Flux: 178 sfu.
12-07-2024 - 6:11 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 69.7% Kemp: 100.0% Kickapoo: 69.4%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 82.9% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (69.55%) to determine drought stage.
12-07-2024 - 6:11 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 10,901 Megawatts.
12-07-2024 - 6:11 AM - Good Morning! It's Saturday! On the schedule is a trip to Pecan Shed for a refill of, that's right, pecans. At 9:00 AM, the Montague County Simplex Net will hit the airwaves on 147.500 MHz as they do each Saturday morning. You'll need a high antenna to hear them from Wichita Falls. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
12-06-2024 - From the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission - Product Recalls - Anker Soundcore Lithium-Ion Battery Powered Bluetooth Speakers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard; Sold Exclusively on Amazon by Anker Innovations |||| Vacation Recalls The Legendary VACATION by Vacation® Black Label Scented Candles Due to Fire and Laceration Hazards |||| QVC Recalls More than One Million Temp-tations Oven Gloves Due to Burn Hazard |||| NetZero USA Recalls High Bay LED Light Fixtures Due to Fire Hazard |||| Academy Sports + Outdoors Recalls Redfield 12- and 18-Gun Fireproof Safes Due to Serious Injury Hazard and Risk of Death |||| Belkin Recalls Portable Wireless Battery Chargers for Smart Watches Due to Fire Hazard |||| Traeger Pellet Grills Recalls Flat Top Propane Grills Due to Fire Hazard.
12-06-2024 - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing for December 6, 2024
National Current Ops / Monitoring for December 5-6, 2024
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• No new significant incidents / operations
Hazard Monitoring:
• Heavy Snow – Great Lakes and Northeast
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• No new declaration activity
Event Monitoring:
• No significant events
12-06-2024 - 5:23 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Increasing clouds, with a high near 51. Light and variable wind. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Light south wind.
12-06-2024 - 5:23 AM - NOAA SPACE WEATHER - Last 24 Hrs: Radio Blackouts (R1 - Minor) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None) Current: Radio Blackouts (R - None) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None). Solar Wind Speed: 370 km/sec Solar Wind Magnetic Fields: Bt 5 nT, Bz 3 nT Noon 10.7cm Radio Flux: 175 sfu.
12-06-2024 - 5:23 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 69.7% Kemp: 100.0% Kickapoo: 69.3%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 82.8% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (69.50%) to determine drought stage.
12-06-2024 - 5:23 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 10,713 Megawatts.
12-06-2024 - 5:23 AM - Good Morning! It's Friday! For railroad buffs, there is a lot of local radio activity on 160.620, 160.920, 161.010, and 161.130 MHz. I find 161.920 to be the busiest. I'm still surprised there isn't more activity on the license-free Multi-Use Radio Service - MURS frequencies. While the power output for MURS is just two watts, external antennas are allowed. You can have complete coverage of the city with an antenna just 5 to 10 feet above the house. The biggest local user is Walmart on 154.570 and 154.600 MHz. There's room for you, too! My coffee is ready!
12-05-2024 - I'm hearing a lot of scratchy radio traffic on 462.5875 MHz this morning. I can't tell what they're saying. There are "roger beeps" included so I'm guessing that they're using Family Radio Service - FRS "bubble pack" radios. That could also account for the weak signal.
12-05-2024 - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing for December 5, 2024
National Current Ops / Monitoring for December 4-5, 2024
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• No new significant incidents / operations
Hazard Monitoring:
• Heavy Snow – Great Lakes and Northeast
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• No new declaration activity
Event Monitoring:
• No significant events
12-05-2024 - According to a report at Times Record News, Bealls, once a tenant at Sikes Senter Mall, will open a store - near Hobby Lobby - in the strip center on Southwest Parkway and Kemp. The article says this location will be named "bealls", with a lowercase letter b. I don't know what to make of that. The report says the bealls location will include a Home Centric "furnishings and accessories" store. This location housed the former Dirt Cheap store that closed in 2023. That's interesting. If Dirt Cheap can't make it in Wichita Falls, we might have a problem. However, this report is good news if you're a Bealls (or bealls) fan. From Texoma's Home Page (KFDX) is a report that Mr. Gatti's Pizza will return to town, this time inside the Lawrence Road Walmart. I've never shopped at Bealls or dined at Mr. Gatti's. That probably won't change.
12-05-2024 - The only reason for the existence of a printed copy of Morse code characters should be for storage in the National Archives in case an apocalypse of one sort or another wipes out all evidence of Morse code, operators and all. Then, someone can convert the printed characters to audible dots and dashes. Once converted, they can be locked away again. The printed Morse characters are not needed to learn or use Morse code. There is no reason for them to be in the wild. Having them in the wild allows people to insert them improperly into their versions of Morse code training. I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion.
12-05-2024 - The 7290 Traffic Net meets on 7.290 MHz LSB Monday - Saturday, 10:00 AM to 12:00 Noon, and Monday - Friday, 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Central Time.
12-05-2024 - A few Amateur (ham) Radio arewas of interest: Aeronautical Mobile Operations, Club Activities, Contests, Digital Modes, Digital Voice, DXing, Earth-Moon-Earth, Emergency Operating, Event Operating, Field Day, High Altitude Ballooning, Image Communications, Internet Linking, Islands on the Air, Marine Mobile Operations, Message Handling, Meteor Scatter, Mobile Operation, Net Operating, Parks on the Air, Repeaters, Portable Operation, Public Service, Satellites, Summits on the Air, and more.
12-05-2024 - 5:10 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 51. Northeast wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 29. Northeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight.
12-05-2024 - 5:10 AM - NOAA SPACE WEATHER - Last 24 Hrs: Radio Blackouts (R1 - Minor) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None) Current: Radio Blackouts (R - None) Solar Radiation Storms (S - None) Geomagnetic Storms (G - None). Solar Wind Speed: 419 km/sec Solar Wind Magnetic Fields: Bt 7 nT, Bz 2 nT Noon 10.7cm Radio Flux: 175 sfu.
12-05-2024 - 5:10 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 69.7% Kemp: 100.0% Kickapoo: 69.6%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 82.9% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (69.65%) to determine drought stage.
12-05-2024 - 5:10 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 11,747 Megawatts.
12-05-2024 - 5:10 AM - Good Morning! It's Thursday! I mowed my yard yesterday. It's dead but with a nappy layer of Bermudagrass seed on top. Most sources spell Bermudagrass as one word and not two. A haircut and edge job was all it needed to look nice for the winter. It's all a straw color, while most of my neighbor's lawns are green. A closer look at their lawns reveals that weeds are green, not grass. I might catch Thursday Night Football tonight. Right now, my coffee is ready!
12-04-2024 - I made contact with KZ9V at Muddy Creek State Wildlife Area (US-4313) in Wisconsin on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
12-04-2024 - I made contact with NZ7Q at Cabezon Wilderness Area (US-8621) in New Mexico on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.