Thanks for the many replies to my original question.
Although I didn't expect so much debate about tone vs
carrier squelch, many of the comments were quite informative.
I especially enjoyed the concept of csq for strong signals and
tone for weaker ones.
For the record, this 2M repeater has existed for at least
33 years with very little down time, covering about 60 miles
along I-65, which is one reason it has remained open squelch.
Sure, there are occasional aggravations during band openings,
but it is generally well tolerated. There have been many
changes in equipment, starting with pre-prog strips, pro-
gressing through chassis from VHF Engineering, Spectrum,
Hamtronics, Mitrek, M2, etc; controllers from ACC, NHRC,
and Link, and CATV line to Heliax, etc. and of course antennas
from Ringos to Hustler to Celwave to DB. I'm sure many
members of this list can relate to systems such as this one.
Through the years many tech crews have come and
gone, and the present one (me) is getting older and tiring
of the mix, thus the proposal to move on to the Kenwood TKR,
based on the many favorable comments about it and my
experience with one deployed at my former workplace some
months ago. For the time being, the TKR that we hope to
deploy will stay in CSQ, with an option to switch to tone
on occasion. My original post was to seek assurance that
the "stock squelch" in the TKR will perform well, without the
need to add a "RLC-MOT" or similar.
Thanks again for the good advice.
Chappy Rice kd4ss
