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I initially started using USB-powered speakers when I was running an Anysecu WP9900 in the truck. With any non-powered speaker, if I got the volume high enough to hear clearly in my noisy truck, it apparently overwhelmed the radio, and it would turn off and reset. The powered speakers solved that problem and gave me better sound and more volume. There's also a volume knob on the cord, making it easier to adjust the volume, which is not easy to do on the fly with that radio. At the time, I couldn't find a powered single speaker, so I used a pair of small stereo speakers. The radio has a single monoaural output jack, so I used a mono-to-stereo adapter plug and got good sound from both speakers. (I've since found a powered single speaker and I run the radio and the speaker from a battery using a mag-mount antenna on a pizza plate inside the house when there are storms in the area. It works well enough for participating in severe weather nets on a local repeater.) I now have an Anytone AT-5888UV III in the car and it has some weird sort of arrangement for sound. There are two jacks and as best I can figure out, the top one has the main side receiver on one speaker and the secondary on another. It's wonky, though, because the volume on the main is much lower than on the secondary, and I have to turn it up much higher. However, if I switch the main to the other side, then it's too loud on the secondary. The bottom jack has VHF on one side and UHF on the other, which I don't get the logic of at all. I use a stereo-to-mono adapter plug in the lower jack, and I can then just adjust the volume for each side with the knob instead of what band it's on. I tried using small stereo speakers, but that was more confusing to me than having both channels in the same speaker; plus, it was kind of a pain to find places to mount two speakers. The Anytone allows you to set it so that the secondary band is muted when the main is transmitting or receiving or only when the main is transmitting, and that works pretty well for me.

GTA... @nokones you wouldn't happen to know Butch Kummer would you? He runs in the South East so, maybe not, but that community isn't *that* large

I had a leather case speciality made by Leathersmith and I bolted the case on top of the switch panel. You might be able to see it if you expand on the attached picture of the inside. Depending on where I was racing, I used either VHF of UHF in the Astro 25 Digital mode with an XTS portable. I used a Racing Electronics Harness with a PT-T on the steering wheel and Racing Electronics Helmet Kit with their custom molded ear inserts. Since, the body panels were composite I ran with a non-groundplane Antenex NMO mount antenna on the roof. I never had any coverage problems and my crew were using the Otto Behind-the-head headsets with the remote antenna attached to the headset and a XTS portable. I thought about going with a mobile, but I never saw the need. Although, I have been a GMRS licensees since the mid-90s, I never used any GMRS freqs. I used Part 90 freqs I was licensed for in both the VHF and UHF bands.

Shaw Butte and the two Towers repeaters are still down this morning.

It’s sad that it’s always so much easier to simply condemn people as stupid rather than trying to understand the actual issues…

Only stupid people protest over illegal alien criminals being deported.

So only stupid people protest?

I know there's at least a couple others here running GMRS radios in race / track cars. Whatcha running? Up until now I've been making do with a handheld based system in my car (with an external antenna). Nerdie racing car harness with Fuze molded ear plugs / buds, and a KG905-G on the door bar, but I've never been thrilled with it. It's performed fine (100% coverage at most tracks I run, 80%+ at worst), but it's something extra to manage and care for and the only decent mount I could find for it had it rotating around to where the screen wasn't visible (did I just bump the channel knob? uh oh...) and if I was lucky I would just be able to reach the volume knob to adjust it while belted in the car w/ a helmet and HANS. Always had to make sure it was turned off for the night, always had to make sure the battery was charged. Before: So I wanted a mobile radio solution. But most mobile radios obviously won't work with a K1 connector based car / headset harness. Cut to learning this weekend about the BTech UV25X2. Compact 20W radio, but has an adapter with a K1 connector to plug a headset in. It is technically a ham radio (actually, I don't know how they get away with it, the thing near as I can tell is WIDE OPEN, not just restricted to 2m / 70cm ham bands), so, caveat emptor and all that, know what you're doing when you're messing with it because it definitely WILL let you do things you maybe shouldn't be. Changed the power connector on the back over to a more weather resistant 2-pin deutsch connector. No I'm not using the cigarette socket in the car, this was just for testing on my desk. In the car it's wired to a switched bus-bar and battery ground in the car. Integrated the mounting bracket with my switch panel with a pair of rivnuts: I don't plan on running it at full power most of the time, but I tested with it to make sure everything works. Good SWR, and higher than the advertised 20W. (1.12 SWR @ 8.6W on Low power). I need to finish cleaning up the wiring and zip tying / wire-wrapping everything, but it's in and I got to test it out simplex with my son on an H/T, and also to a handful of local repeaters, both with the handset it comes with, and with the full helmet & earbuds setup. Seems to work great, good signal reports all round, we'll see how it holds up

So I was right. Basically normal landers without the height you have. I guess normal for you and I would be different because of our landscape situation. LOS makes a huge difference.

My experience is at home, with the high ground, FRS ~1-8 miles.. GMRS 3-20 miles. While off-roading, in hills, mountains and rolling desert hills, FRS, with its tiny little antenna has never performed as well as any GMRS radio after ~1 mile or so.

FRS 1/2 to 3 miles under normal conditions. Maybe 5-7 max. GMRS 1/2 to 5 miles under normal conditions. Maybe 7-9 max. Both in simplex. Expand on your experience. You live in a mountainous region on the high ground. I live in hilly territory where at any time you may be on high or low ground.

In my real-world experience, this is not correct.. at all..

A "real" GMRS radio isn't getting much better than a FRS radio either. Unless you are using repeaters.

I always have to laugh when folks come into work(Sportsman's Warehouse) looking at our Bubble Pack Radios. "But it says on the package 36 miles?" I try to tell them that they're just cheap FRS radios that are .5 to 2 watts and they'd be lucky to get a mile with them in the city and maybe 3 or 4 miles in prefect condition out in the wide open country. I always try to point them to a "REAL" radio and tell them they can get a much better UV-5R for $20 bucks on Amazon. I get a few folks thanking me for them not wasting their money on the bubble pack stuff.

You asked for 95E radios. At one time or still do Motorola did/do offer a FRS radio that had a removable antenna, thus has to be a 95E type-accepted. Those radios were only 2 watts. Some of the Cobra radios have removable antennae and have to be 95E Type-Accepted. I'm not sure if those radios are only 2 watts or 5 watt radios. Just because a radio is made in China doesn't make them a China radio. Midland, Cobra, and Motorola are an American Owned Company and they design/engineer the radios right here in the United States and outsource the building of those radios to a company in China and have them built to those specifications.

My bet would be if they WERE using radios they'd be the cheap bubble pack FRS radios you'd get from WalMart. I don't think they'd be intelligent enough to get real GMRS radios and use them. If they were they'd not be protesting in the first place.

When you're ready to move up take a serious look at the AR-5RM or if you want/need GPS the BTech/Baofeng BF-F8HP Pro is an awesome radio. Welcome to the Crazy World of GMRS.

the UV 21 uses the USB charge option so its not the same battery as UV5. The BFH6 looks like a Uv5 and not sure what the difference is between them. It's not a bad radio, been playing around with it for a few days and i like it.

I don't know of any USB-C chargeable batteries of the UV-5R type. At least some extended (3800mAh) batteries for UV-5R are chargeable with a cable rather than using the charging stand. The cable has a small round plug that fits the side of the battery. But other than having another cable to keep up with, it is (IMO) just as good as USB-C.

These are all made in "pandaland". Motorola doesn't even make a part 95E (GMRS) radio, only FRS radios, or business, and their FRS radios (and alot of their business radios) are China. So are Cobra's that I've seen and all the midlands.

Midland, Cobra, and Motorola.

Yes, I know. In CHIRP you'd enter 462.725 and it'll automatically offset to TX to 467, my radios don't work with CHIRP, might be a WINE/Linux deal or something. In the Stock Software you enter 467 as the TX and 462 as the RX.

Yeah that looks correct. I'd try putting another one in with the DCS tone just to try. I still don't know why it wouldn't be giving you the "I can't do that" tone on GMRS 18 tho.

That doesn’t surprise me that an “upgraded” model uses a different battery. More money to be made from selling more batteries. I may have said this before, but my favorite “open” radios are the Baofeng DM-5R a/k/a Radioddity RD-5R which are also DMR and use UV-5R batteries! Now I just need a couple of USB-C chargable batteries to compliment my collection.

Dude - Your Transmit Frequency For The Repeater Should Be 467.725MHz / CTCSS 100.0 - Not 462.725 MHz. Re-check Your Programming.......