A friend purchased one of these off Ebay several years ago and it was fine
except the standard repeater split was incorrect. I suspected something
like a repeater split setting but found nothing in any of my searches.
Yesterday I saw something that got me thinking, and today I found the
secret to making it work. I suspect someone at some point had tried to
expand the frequency coverage, failed, and when it was returned to its
original state, evidently the programming for the repeater offset reset
to 0.000 MHz. Nothing is mentioned in the manuals regarding any procedure
to set it to 1.600 MHz, but I started turning the radio on while holding
different buttons and found the secret to be holding RPT while turning
the radio on, then I used the DIAL knob to set the repeater offset to
1.600 MHz and now it works correctly. Here it is in a nutshell:

Setting the Yaesu FT-33R Repeater Split offset:

1. Hold the RPT button while turning the radio on. The radio will display
   the currently programmed repeater split.

2. Rotate the DIAL knob until correct split is displayed. On 1.25M, the
   standard split is 1.600 MHz.

3. Turn the radio off to store the new split.

Brad KB9BPF