Squelch randomly stops working with transverter

Don Pezet

I have a Q5 Signals transverter that I use with my Flex Radio 8600 to monitor a local repeater and my local hotspot. It is configured for the 2m / 144MHz band. I will usually tune to the repeater and just leave it running in a dedicated slice/panadapter while I work HF on other panadapters. I've noticed that at a seemingly random interval, squelch will stop functioning on that slice. Disabling/enabling squelch does not work. If I change from NFM to another mode and then switch back to NFM then squelch begins to work like normal. It happens at least once per day, but I haven't been able to nail down a pattern. Have any of you experienced this?

Here are some details on my system:

• Flex Radio 8600 running v3.10.10
• SmartSDR for Windows v3.10.10
• Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100 Build 26100)
• Q5 Signals Transverter L144-28HP75
• Squelch is set at 20

KD0RC

Hi Don, I have a 6400 and don't see that issue at all. I would suggest submitting a help desk ticket.

Don Pezet

I was just doing some testing and it happened on my second transverter as well. It's another Q5 Signals transverter, but it is for the 70cm / 440MHz band and is configured as XVTB in SmartSDR.

KD0RC

Hi Don, squelch happens in the radio, not the transverter, so this is a radio issue.

One thing to try is a factory reset to see if that clears it. Be sure to export your profiles first. If that doesn't help, submit a help desk ticket.

Don Pezet

Unfortunately, a factory reset did not fix it. I will open a ticket and see what Flex has to say about it.

Don Pezet

I got a response from Flex support, and it looks like it is a bug in SmartSDR. They have it logged as issue SMART-11556 if anyone else runs across it. Hopefully it will get fixed in a future release, but I imagine it is a pretty low priority problem. I'll try to reply here if I hear anything in the future.