Due to continuing interference on the 2 meter(145.48MHz) Shelbyville repeater, we will be adding an 88.5 Hz tone on both the input and output sides of the repeater. The tone will be implemented around the first week of September. This should give you enough time to figure out how to program a PL tone on your radio. Hopefully, this will let us reduce the current maximum level of squelch on the receiver, make the repeater more handi-talkie friendly, eliminate the interference and stop the repeater from timing out during long periods of interference.

The 88.5 Hz tone will be added to the output side as well so that users may block any unwanted digital “noise” that they hear when Fusion digital users are occupying the repeater. This repeater has a fairly large footprint for the height above ground of the antenna and we are beginning to pick up more users from out of County. Some of those users are Fusion digital users. We think eliminating the “noise” for analog only users is probably a good thing.

I know this is probably an inconvenience for some to have to program a PL tone into their radios, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to get the manual out and go through the exercise anyway. You might discover some things about your radio you didn’t know before. I don’t have any good answers for folks with radios that can’t handle a PL tone, but I don’t think we have any other choice but to apply the tone to the repeater. We have to keep the repeater running as best we can when it is needed the most.

John Walker, K9SVL

Repeater Trustee