My 2 meter TKR has worked fine for about a year but has always had a problem on our frequent weak signals. We're a mountain community and CERT/RACES/ARES/Skywarn users are often on HT's. There are a couple of towers in the neighborhood at 6,400 feet over southern California (it's kewl living at a repeater site) and on my own gear I don't hear anything on a weak signal beyond the norm. But on the TKR it just sounds dirty. Grungy. Crunchy. There are commercial sites within one mile with high power paging but we've detected no intermod. We did have a bout were grungy audio was breaking PL and hanging until timeout. But that went away. The Wacom 6 cavity WP-642 is tuned dead on and offers excellent isolation and rejection (at a cost of 2-3dB loss on TX <sigh>).
Another TKR user at a high elevation commercial site reports similar experiences. Yet another TKR owner reported that his is excellent and yes the audio is good. Just not for us on weak signals. He suggested perhaps an RFI issue but from where? Our installation is modest and constrained only by my lack of time and funds. My daughter is sick and I live in a hospital with her, so be gentle HI HI. The very large guard dog watches the house. The antenna is a Hustler G5-144 tuned with a MFJ 259, dead on and above the repeater through an insulated roof by about 30 feet. We have no desense. It is fed with LMR-400 just because I haven't put hard line on it. No preamps are installed. At 6,400 feet not much is needed. The receiver is .18uV. The TKR hears very well compared to my FT-847 with an antenna 20 feet lower. Why the grungy audio?
