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10-30-2023 - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: Our state has earned yet another title to be proud of: Texas is the nation's "stickiest" state. In other words, Texas natives aren't leaving. More than 1,000 people continue to make Texas their new home each day, which says a lot about the state's resilient economy.

10-30-2023 - If you look about 2 miles north of U.S. 287 - just east of Iowa Park - on either Peterson Road or Rifle Range Road, you'll see an L-shaped array of concrete helipads once used by Sheppard Air Force Base. The Kaman Huskie was a common sight at SAFB back in the 1960s and an occasional Bell UH-1 "Huey" could also be seen.

10-30-2023 - What does it mean when a large portion of your daily mail consists of hearing aid, Medicare, and retirement home ads? Don't answer that!

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10-30-2023 - The CB Radio band is open and there are a lot of stations on Channel 38 LSB (lower Sideband) making contacts. A lot of Ham Radio people still enjoy CB Radio, especially sideband.

10-30-2023 - Today is National Wicked Day, National Publicists Day, Speak Up for Service Day, and National Candy Corn Day.

10-30-2023 - My first meal in Wichita Falls was a hamburger from the Glass Kitchen in the 1800 Block of Hines. It later became LW's Burgers, and then it was gone. It later showed up on Old Iowa Park Road, where it remained for many years. It closed just a year or so ago. My first residence, while my dad searched for a home, was just around the corner at the Town & Country Motel on the southeast corner of East Scott and Windthorst Road. It's gone now, too. All was not lost since a lot of hobby radio fun lay ahead!

10-30-2023 - Good Morning, for real this time! I'm working on my first cup of coffee while I check out the local radio scene on the scanner. By now, you know the usual suspects are Walmart (154.570 MHz), the Allred Unit (153.815 MHz), the County Jail (155.520 MHz), the State Hospital (154.800 MHz) the city transit buses (453.5375 MHz), school handheld radios (151.940 MHz), and the school buses (152.360 MHz). They are all up and running this morning.

10-30-2023 - I popped awake at 0230 so I decided to fire up the Yaesu 857D to see what was going on. I located a terrible Morse code signal on 40 meters. It was slow, about 10 words per minute, but it was so jumbled I couldn't make out a single word. I wasn't the only one because, when the "terrible" station turned it over to the other station, all I heard was "???". There was no answer from the "terrible" station. I guess he gave up and went to bed. Tuning around the 40 and 80 meter CW (Morse code) sub band, I don't hear anything else at the moment. I do hear the North Texas State Hospital (154.800 MHz) conducting business as usual.

10-29-2023 - It's 2000 hrs on Sunday and that means the Wichita Amateur Radio Society weekly informal net is on the air on the club's 147.140 MHz repeater. Check in if you're an Amateur (ham) Radio Operator, or listen in on your scanner!

10-29-2023 - The CB Radio is jumping, as usual. The band has been wide open day after day after day. If you want to talk to someone on the other side of the USA, by radio, with no license required, this is the time to do it. Some of you might not know that the 155-mile restriction was removed in 2017. The power restriction remains. There's no reason for that to be a problem. Just put your money into your antenna system. I didn't hear any of the local guys on Channel 23 this evening. Maybe the skip was too bad, or they had other things to do, or I just missed them.

10-29-2023 - The 147.140 MHz repeater (Amateur (ham) Radio has been getting a lot of use this morning. This is not uncommon the day before and the day after a hamfest (yesterday). The day before, people talk about what they want to buy. The day after, they talk about what they actually bought. Of course, they talk about other stuff too! As I was writing this, someone was repeatedly keying (kerchunking) the repeater, but not giving their ID. Someone else came on and advised them they needed to identify themselves. Legally, no ID is required at the beginning of the transmission, but at the end of the communication, or every ten minutes. But, people are touchy about the proper use of the local repeaters and whoever was kerchunking probably wasn't going to identify and did not do so when invited. That's my two milliamps worth, anyway.

10-29-2023 - I mentioned in an earlier post that I bought two Yaesu FTM-3100 2-meter radios. They seem to be programmed to have the cooling fan run almost continuously. This is widely reported. One of my unit's fan sometimes runs for a little over a second, then stops for a second or so. It sounds like it is snoring!

10-29-2023 - Everyone probably has their personal definition of ignisecond. For me, it was the period of time between calling my mother stupid and realizing that she was holding a 4-foot section of fiberglass fishing rod. Yep, 1963.

10-29-2023 - From my law enforcement consultant - It was about 30 years ago when I spotted a group of CB Radio antenna-equipped cars on the lot of the old Sale Barn on Sheppard Access Road. Being interested in radio communications, I pulled onto the lot to see what was happening. One of the vehicle occupants explained to me that they were having a "keydown." The puzzled look on my face brought the full explanation that everyone would "key down" and identify, and a station on the other side of town would tell them which one was the loudest. I said "Cool! Y'all have fun" and I drove clear of the amplifier-boosted radio frequency crossfire! It immediately occurred to me that this is not unlike Ham Radio DX pileups. All the hams scream and, when the dust settles, the DX station tells them who was loudest.

10-29-2023 - From my corrections consultant - An offender housed in Administrative Segregation was being escorted from his cell, in hand restraints (normal for "Seg" offenders) to the shower. The offender complained in a written grievance that as he was passing by another cell, the offender in that cell "skeeted me down with his sh*t bottle." Tune in to Allred Unit operations at 153.815 MHz on your scanner.

10-29-2023 - Good Morning! The temperature in the house is 67 degrees, and that means it's not only coffee time, but it's also time to put a YouTube fireplace video on the big screen TV! We have a real fireplace, but it's not in my home office - man cave - radio shack! The forecasted high for today is 41 degrees, so the furnace will probably get its first run of the season today. The Rangers got spanked last night. Let's see what the Cowboys do later today.

10-28-2023 - It was a very rainy trip to the Ardmore hamfest where I bought a few little coax jumpers and an old Astatic D-104 microphone. That was the extent of my purchases. Sadly, there were very few young people in attendance. The crowd was a little on the old side. I'm almost 72 so when I say a crowd is old, you can take that to the bank! After the hamfest, we made our customary trip to a nearby casino where the wife and I dropped $20 each into the slots. I donated my $20 and my wife came out $2 ahead. Then, it was off to IHOP for a late breakfast. By the way, I didn't win the Pre-Registration prize of an Icom IC 705, all-mode QRP rig with a bunch of extras, a total value of $3,000. Now, let's see if the Texas Rangers can win Game 2 of the World Series tonight!

10-28-2023 - Good Morning! I'm getting ready for the drive to Ardmore (OK) for the annual Hamarama Hamfest. I don't have plans for any big purchases, but I might find some type of ham-related trinkets of interest scattered about the flea market. Let's see what happens.

10-27-2023 - In the early 1980s, a clothing store on East Scott had a sign outside that said, "Our prices are lowest because we cheat every third customer". In the mid-1960s, a restaurant billboard ad near North Scott and Sheppard Access Road said "T-Bone, 50¢. With meat, $5.95".