[W8MWA] Issue with Reception of W8MWA

[Jeffrey Fritz]

During Monday's Monongalia ARES Traffic & Training Net, I had problems receiving the W8MWA repeater. It was extremely noisy at my QTH. (Based on some quick reports, it didn't seem that I was having problems transmitting to the repeater--only receiving.) The signal from the repeater that has been previously strong at my QTH has become very weak on receive on both of my two-meter rigs--the Leixen VV-898S and the Motorola Syntor X. 
Both rigs share the same VHF/UHF vertical through a coax switch. Bypassing the coax switch made no difference. The VSWR measured with both rigs near to the W8MWA frequency was 1.15:1 and both rigs were able to make power (20 and 40 watts respectively.)
To find out what might have gone wrong, this afternoon I took a VHF/UHF mobile mag mount antenna and placed it on the copper roof of our front deck. This was done assuming that my vertical had gone bad. I measured the VSWR near the W8MWA frequency as 2.1:1. Not nearly as good as the Diamond, but certainly acceptable. Then I checked both base rigs for power output to the antenna. The 898S was putting out 20-watts and the Syntor X was putting out 40-watts. Both, of course, were normal.
Next I brought up the W8MWA repeater on both rigs using the mag mount antenna. Same thing. Lots and lots of noise. Perhaps a S2 or S3 if either rig had a decent S-meter.
I switched back to the vertical. Then, just for fun, I tried bringing up the Elkins repeater, N8FMD, on 145.230 MHz. Elkins is 51 miles from Morgantown--so that's not a short hop by any means on two-meters. Although it was noisy, as expected, I was able to repeatedly bring up Elkins and hear it ID itself. 
Now I am wondering if I am dealing with strange conditions, or if perhaps some change has been made to the repeater. My QTH is in a coverage shadow due to higher hills directly between my QTH and Chestnut Ridge, but normally the vertical has enough gain to make that a non-issue.
If anyone in the club can shine any light on this recent reception issue, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks and 73,
Jeff, WB1AALjnfritz07 at yahoo.com
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