The ORARC 2025 Field Day takes place on Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th of June
during the Kings Birthday Holiday weekend. The 2025 Field Day will be the 49th Annual
Field Day.

The Field Day venue will be the Wauchope Showground Hall. This venue has proven to be
very popular. The hall has been booked again for the 2025 Field Day.
The Wauchope Showground hall is spacious with plenty of off-street parking.

On site camping is available and the Wauchope Showground is pet friendly.
Early bookings to the live-in caretaker on phone 0475 111 074 are essential,
http://www.wauchopeshowsociety.com.au/camping.html, as the camp sites are
very popular during the Kings Birthday Holiday weekend.

Rates are very reasonable with power available. There are toilets and hot showers.
You can even stable your horse!

The Field Day Dinner will be at 6 pm on the evening of Saturday the 7th of June 2025 in the
Seabreeze Function Room at the Port Macquarie Golf Club. Thank you to Gary Ryan
VK2ZKT of Radio Supply for sponsoring the function room for the dinner. Gary has kindly
sponsored the hire of the room for many years and ORARC is indebted to Gary for his
continuing sponsorship. The Golf Club has an extensive menu to suit all tastes.
Meals are at club prices.

Keep an eye out for the March edition of Oxtales for updates on the field day

Add the Field Day to your calendar by clicking this link

Add the Field Day Dinner to your calendar by clicking this link

Map links to each venue is show below…

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.