Many, many thanks to Lee VE7FET for the info on squelch.
I loaded the new firmware on the bench last night and it completely eliminated the squelch crash. I loaded it to all my RTCMs on the mountains last night before the normal round of Monday night nets started and it 100% solved ALL the squelch issues. Even the couple of folks 100+ miles out from the repeater that have light or slightly scratchy signals had *perfect* squelch action.
Many thanks to Lee and all that have offered assistance in the past!
73
James
KI0KN