Hello All,

Just a reminder that the Beechwood Billy Cart Classic is on this Sunday the 25th of October.

ORARC has been requested to provide communications for the event, as per usual.  Event Volunteers should have (just) received an email containing a map and a Checkpoint operators list.

Event Volunteer or otherwise, we’d love to see you on the day!  For those that haven’t previously attended the day:

The Beechwood Billycart Classic is a great fun day for both adults and kids. The billycart races cater for 100kph speedsters racing down Mt Pappinbarra, veterans and kids’ races, set in the relaxed village atmosphere of Beechwood.

Besides the billycart races, there are stalls, horse rides, jumping castle, barbeques, and of course the hospitality of the Beechwood Hotel.

Started in 1980, the 5km adult’s course attracts entries from far and wide, with the top racers exceeding 100kph! Since there are a couple of small uphill sections, billycarts for the Classic are unique in the world, in that they are two-person. One does the driving, whilst the other – the ‘Co-Driver’ – needs a fit pair of legs to keep the power up when gravity’s working against them.

Children do a much shorter downhill-only course down the main street of Beechwood, but since its only a gentle decline, they use a ‘Co-Driver’ too!

Visit the event’s website here.  See our event calendar entry here.  See you all on the day!

Hello All!

Henry filed this report from today’s trip to the mountain:

The VK2RPM-1 Middle Brother APRS digipeater is now back in service. The replacement radio transceiver for the digipeater was installed on Friday the 2^nd of October and the digipeater is performing well.

Thank you to Lyle VK2SMI, Arthur VK2ATM and Henry VK2ZHE for installing the radio and placing the digipeater back in service. Fortunately, the weather on site remained fine while the work was carried out.

Also, just a reminder that the monthly general meeting is on tomorrow, 3rd October, at 2pm – see you there!

Henry VK2ZHE, Lyle VK2SMI and Arthur VK2ATM ventured to the Middle Brother Repeater site on Saturday to look at the failed VK2RPM-1 APRS Digipeater.  Its Philips FM-828 transceiver has stopped working and will be looked at during the Wednesday’s Working Bee.

The Icom repeater currently running VK2RPM on 2m 146.7Mhz was also removed during the visit for testing at the Working Bee with a view to eliminating it as a piece of the inter-mod puzzle that continues to plague the site on VHF.  In its place is Henry VK2ZHE’s Yaesu DR-1X repeater which has been set to auto receive both analog FM and C4FM digital (aka System Fusion) and to transmit in analog FM only.

Finally, the club’s new Yaesu DR-1X was installed in place of the Philips FM-815 VK2RPM 70cm 438.525MHz repeater.  This repeater is currently set to Auto/Auto so will automatically repeat in whichever mode you transmit to it – thereby enabling the operation of full digital C4FM via Middle Brother on UHF.

Current plans are to reinstall both the repaired APRS VK2RPM-1 Digipeater and the tested Icom 146.7MHz 2m repeater next week.

VK2RPM-1 Digipeater: Off-Air

VK2RPM 2m Repeater: Analog FM input, Analog FM Output
VK2RPM 2m Repeater: C4FM Digital input, Analog FM Output

VK2RPM 70cm Repeater: Analog FM input, Analog FM Output*
VK2RPM 70cm Repeater: C4FM Digital input, C4FM Digital Output

*Users should note that any packet like signals heard on 438.525 will be C4FM digital transmissions which can be decoded using a Yaesu C4FM transceiver.

September Oxtales has been released!

Thanks to John VK2AYQ and Trevor VK2TT for compiling another excellent read, and thank you to all contributors.

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