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I am having this issue and cant seem to find a solution. I am running a Yaesu vx6r radio, I have had it for about 6 years. Today, I fired it up, as I had just built a 5 element 70cm yagi for satellite down links and what not. But I tried to key up a local repeater and well nothing. I made sure the the tone (103.5) was correct, and that the shift settings are correct. I put on my stock antenna, and still nothing (unusual as I can normal hit this repeater just fine)

So i went and put together my Icom, and got set up on two meters, it too could not hit a local two meter repeater. But i went to a simplex band, and I could listen and hear myself on both radios. But no repeaters.

I checked the tone, and shift points. they are all fine. anything else to look at? It seems like both radios are having this issue. I just got back into radio, could I be missing something?

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    $\begingroup$ Is the shift the right direction? $\endgroup$
    – Optionparty
    Commented Dec 28, 2015 at 21:48
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    $\begingroup$ Actually, I had the same problem. There was a repeater that I would use while in Oregon (I live in Washington state) and on one trip down there I was planning to meet a friend and we were going to coordinate via the repeater. I couldn't raise anything on the repeater. I too checked everything and everything was AOK so I thought. I wasn't sure if he had his cell phone but I finally reached via cell phone. I asked about the repeater. He said that earlier in the year, the repeater changed its tone for some reason (not sure). Once I matched their new tone on my rig, I hit the repeater fine. $\endgroup$
    – K7PEH
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 5:48
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    $\begingroup$ can you tell more about the repeater you try reaching and your settings? I am thinking that your repeater may require a tone. Check also your offset. If offset or tone are not correct the repeater will 'ignore' you and/or you will not hear it. $\endgroup$
    – Chevdor
    Commented Jan 2, 2016 at 9:14

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Since you say that both radios have the exact same problem, I think we can more or less rule out an outright problem with the radio itself.

Since you say that you used to be able to hit this repeater easily, I think we can rule out that you would be too far away from the repeater for the antenna that you are using.

It also seems unlikely that both radios would have had their settings spontaneously changed compared to the previous values. You also specifically state that you have checked the tone and shift.

That does however leave one very real possibility, especially since I don't see you stating anything that answers the question: is the repeater itself operational?

The best course of action at this point might be to contact the people who operate the repeater, or visit the appropriate web site, and check to make sure that the repeater itself is QRV, that they haven't changed the CTCSS tone, that it's still operating on the same frequency pair, or any other major changes since you last were able to use it.

Repeaters sometimes do go off the air, either temporarily (due to maintenance or unplanned outages) or permanently (because of everything from lost interest to dissolution of the club operating it to abuse). Frequency or CTCSS changes are sometimes necessary to deal with interference problems.

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  • $\begingroup$ No one mentioned the obvious, the newly built antenna! Check using another antenna. $\endgroup$
    – quintablet
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 0:51
  • $\begingroup$ @quintablet If you have an alternative answer, please post it as an answer. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 8:43
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Check your antenna and also the feed line between the radio and antenna. Eliminate one variable at a time. 2 radios, 2 antennas, 2 feed lines(?), one repeater. Take Michael's advice and check if the repeater has changed or better yet try another repeater.

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