Fresh off the e-mail press from Jeff N5MNW…
The [Austin Amateur Radio Club’s] W5KA ’94 repeater has been exhibiting long/hanging squelch tails recently, most likely due to terrific VHF band openings and the decision to keep the Austin ’94 an old-fashioned carrier-access machine. The antenna at ~1500′ ASL hears things we at ~700′ ASL can’t. Near-threshold co-channel (Brownwood, HOU, SA, DFW) signals cause the hysteresis in the squelch circuit to keep the repeater keyed even though no audible signal is getting thru.
The [Austin] Technical Team is working on adding multiple, S/N voted 107.2Hz PL-tone-access remote receive site(s) that will help mitigate this effect.
Make sure you are encoding 107.2Hz to take full advantage of the planned upgrades!
