[RVRC] IMPORTANT - W2QW 2M configuration changes

[Craig W Saums via RVRC]

Members

The current situation with our 2 Meter repeater requires an immediate change to resolve the constant 'looping' of our transmissions with a foreign machine.  A series of tests confirms that we have some form of conflict with another repeater using reverse splits and the same PL tone as W2QW.  It is not really important right now why or how the conflict exists.  The issue is how to best serve our members and minimize impacts to any visitors on the machine.

To resolve this issue the following changes are necessary.  

The PL tone required to communicate with the W2QW 2M repeater input has been changed to 241.5.  
Members should immediately program a new W2QW channel on their radios using PL 241.5 for the input (146.025).  
If you configure your radio using the ARS (Automatic Repeater Shift) configuration then you still use 146.625 with a minus 600 kHz.  
This feature is the standard mode on many radios.  Your mileage may vary.

The repeater will continue to transmit using PL 141.3.  Anyone listening on the original configuration will hear the repeater traffic with their current decode set to 141.3 but they will not be able to open our squelch unless their transmit PL is changed to 241.5.  Anyone using open (no decode) squelch to receive our signal will be unaffected.

We will try to get a voice announcement on the machine as soon as possible to make this change known to any one listening. 

We are now running in 'split' PL mode where the input requires 241.5 and the output transmits 141.3.

Longer term we may be able to revert to using our traditional PL code - 141.3 or 'dual' codes but that is not possible at this time.  We have tested 'dual' input PL.  This would allow a transition period to the new code but it does not fix the immediate looping problem.

The current repeater hardware uses hardware based PL to transmit.  Changing the transmit PL requires reprogramming the machine.  The receive PL is managed through the controller software (using DSP).  The only available option right now is to change the receive PL - it is now set to 251.4.  

This solution is now in place - please change your radios and feel free to periodically announce the change during your transmissions.

Thank you for your support and patience.

73 
Craig, AC2FE