Henry VK2ZHE writes:

On Saturday the 8th of February 2025, at an intensive working bee at the Middle Brother Repeater site, all the VK2RPM repeaters were relocated from the previous outdoor cabinet to a rack inside the building. The VK2RPM Radnet DMR repeater on 438.525 MHz, the 2 metre 146.7 MHz FM repeater and the VK2RPM-1 APRS Digipeater are now all back in service.

The VK2RPM Echolink node which had been temporarily connected to the VK2RCN 147.0 MHz repeater at Telegraph Point during the outage of the VK2RPM repeaters will now be reconnected to the Middle Brother VK2RPM 146.7 MHz repeater and from this Thursday night the 13th of February 2025, the ORARC Thursday Night and Sunday Morning Nets will be held on the VK2RPM 146.7 MHz repeater.

Than you to the working bee participants Peter Fletcher VK2HPF, Tim Tuck VK2XAX, Lyle Smith VK2SMI, Dennis Meade VK2DAM and Henry Lundell VK2ZHE for doing a sterling job in the relocation of the equipment and recommissioning of the VK2RPM equipment.

The Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Inc. sincerely apologises for the extended outage of the repeater services after a lightning strike on the 13th of December 2024. Fortunately the VK2RPM equipment was not damaged in the lightning strike which affected the host’s electrical distribution at the site. This outage was the first such outage in 52 years at the site.

The Long Point Vineyard & Art Gallery
6 Cooinda Place, Lake Cathie
Saturday 7nd Dec 2024 at 10:30am

Henry VK2ZHE writes:

The club’s 2024 Christmas Party will be held on Saturday the 7^th of December.

The venue will again be the covered picnic area at the Long Point Vineyard and Art Gallery at 6 Cooinda Place, Lake Cathie. Cooinda Place runs off Long Point Drive which in turn runs off Houston Mitchell Drive. This is the “Ghost Road” which runs between Ocean Drive just south of Lake Cathie, and the Pacific Highway. The location is easy to find but a map is available on the Vineyard web site at http://www.longpointvineyard.com.au/contact-us/

The Christmas party will be from 10:30 am onwards. There will be a sausage sizzle barbeque lunch followed by delicious pavlova and trifle desserts. Please bring your own salads and nibbles and drinks. Note that alcoholic drinks may not be brought to the venue but the Cellar Door will be open for purchases. The club will have some soft drinks and water available. Tea and coffee will also be available.

We look forward to a good attendance at this year’s Christmas party. Please take the opportunity to come along and socialize. The covered picnic area has an elevated timber floor. The cover provides shade from the sun and offers shelter in the event of rain. There is no charge and family and friends are most welcome. If you have a folding chair and table, please bring them to help with the seating.

November Oxtales is here! This bumper edition combines the best of what would have been September’s Oxtales with November’s exciting updates, making it a double dose of radio fun! Our dedicated editor, despite the monumental task of moving house, has pulled together another stellar newsletter packed with field day recaps, antenna experiments, upcoming events, and some fascinating technical and historical tidbits.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed articles and photos—and, of course, to our editor for their tireless work and exceptional dedication. Members should have received their copy via email, but as always, current and past editions are available on our website here.

July Oxtales is here! Read all about our very successful field day, antenna shootout and other coming events! There’s lots of other Amateur radio news, some blasts from the past and some sciencey stuff too! Thank you to all contributors and our diligent editors!

Members should now have received their copy by email, but website copies of the current and past editions can always be found here.