Ah, the magic of the wireless.
In the North Sea area at the moment we are using 8kHz offset freqs for the REBRO system. A clever idea, that does work.
The VHF 20A's that you are using (I guess) may need tweeking. In the pre-rebro days, the squelch thresholds were set differently (higher), so more signal was needed to let you hear it.
If you manage to get into the workshop, try adjusting your carrier squelch threshold to 8uV instead of the old 20 uV. The Carrier/ noise squelch threshold can stay where it is at 3 uV. That should do the trick.
Happy adjusting!