[K3CAL] Update K3CAL Kenwood Repeaters

[KB3WFV]

Hello all,

Many of you know on July 4th 2026 severe thunderstorms passed through Calvert County, causing extensive damage from West to East, along the entire length of RT231. Trees down, power failures, road closures, homes damaged, even the public safety communication system was a bit overwhelmed. You may also know, the K3CAL new Kenwood repeater system, locked up during the severe weather event. Preventing linked repeater communications between the Northern and Southern ends of the county.

You may not know that the Kenwood repeaters were removed from service on July 5th 2026. Unable to rely on the Kenwood repeaters to maintain linked communications, Jonathan N5WTA, myself KB3WFV, and Lisa, spent the day visiting both the Sunderland tower site and the Lusby tower site. Removing the new Kenwood repeaters, reinstalling the old Yaesu Repeaters with the RC210 controllers and Motorola Link radios. This is the current system configuration today.

You also may not know, that the lock up condition has been a problem since the Kenwood repeaters were installed in early June. The local repeater will lock up in transmit. No CW ID, No Time out Timer, will not pass local tx audio, will not pass network TX audio. Resetting the locked up repeater, requires a visit to the tower site, cycling the power off and on. This condition, occurs when the remote repeater, receives weak, low, noisy, in and out signals. The weak signal received by the remote repeater is passed along the IP link to the local repeater, causing the local repeater to lock up.

It turns out that the lock up, is NOT, the result of any single operators station configuration, radio settings, or operating styles. It is simply, the Kenwood repeater's  inability to handle weak signal traffic correctly.

This lock up condition has been duplicated, multiple times, repeatable, in a bench test setup. It has been documented with internal logs from the repeaters and captured on video. This information was forwarded to the Dealer and Kenwood on July 17th 2026.

On August 11th 2026, Kenwood communicated that an upgrade to firmware version 2.50, would correct the lock up problem. They also noted that the current firmware version, released in March of 2026, is 2.62, while the K3CAL Kenwood repeaters, ordered in April 2026, Shipped in late May 2026, are running firmware version 2.32, a version of firmware that is known to cause IP network lock ups.

On August 12th 2026, citing that the K3CAL repeaters, ordered with the specific requirement to work in an Analogue, IP network link configuration, were shipped with an old firmware version, 2.32, incapable of functioning correctly with IP networking. Further noting that the latest firmware version 2.62, was released in March 2026, two months before shipping the K3CAL repeaters. It was requested of Kenwood, that two new repeaters with the latest firmware and licenses, configured to function as required, be shipped to CARA, replacing the outdated firmware version repeaters.

August 28th 2026, Kenwood engineering has been working to verify that the latest firmware version 2.62, will function, correctly, in a Analogue, Ip Network configuration. They have set up two NXR repeaters, duplicating the K3CAL repeater system, installing the K3CAL configuration files and simulated transmission through the repeaters. At last word after 21 hours of short cycle transmissions, the NXR repeaters with firmware version 2.62 are functioning correctly.

At this time, it is unclear if Kenwood is sending new updated repeaters, OR will request return of the current repeaters, for factory service updating of the firmware.

More information will be provided when available.
Brian
KB3WFV