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