What might be a problem if you receive a report that your audio signal through an FM repeater is distorted or unintelligible?

When operating through an FM repeater, several different issues can cause your audio to sound distorted or unintelligible to others. If your transmitter is slightly off frequency, the repeater's receiver will not demodulate your signal properly, leading to distortion. Low batteries can cause your radio's internal circuitry to fail to produce enough power or properly encode audio, directly affecting transmission quality. A "bad location" means your signal is suffering from multipath interference or simply lacks the line-of-sight strength to clearly reach the repeater. Because all of these factors—frequency alignment, power supply voltage, and physical location—can degrade your transmitted signal into a repeater, they are all valid reasons for a bad audio report.