Pyrodox

That's the PL/CTCSS tone... It's a subaudible tone transmitted along with your audiio. The repeater will not open squelch or repeat your signal without a matching PL tone.

Were they using voice inversion?

One thing, don't expect *too* much from a rubber-duck... While antenna is 99% of a radio system, no matter what you will be limited using a portable with a rubber-duck compared to a mobile or base. I use the Diamond SRH77CA on my VX-7R, seems to work pretty well for 2M/70CM.

There's a few repeaters in the NJ area now linked via RoIP using Asterisk/app_rpt and URIx interface boxes. Asterisk/app_rpt is an open source repeater control and RoIP integration software.