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My guess is, voice and data service when outside of LMR/LTE/5G coverage.

And always respect the Queen!

Well done!

Thanks all for the guidance. Got a couple of the simple GM-15 pros on order. Wanted something simple with a positive display and sync for me to learn on and that my family could intuitively turn on and quickly find a GMRS channel to transmit/receive on…..but also with potential for other frequency listening/emergency use only. That and $46 for two of them with upgraded antennas was too good of a deal for me to pass up.

If you want a "Bang for the Buck"radio the Baofeng K61 is hard to beat at $16 bucks and it's a Tri-Band that'll get you 2M,1.25M,70cm and it'll do MURS and GMRS. The Radtel RT-900 St $25 bucks gives you multiple bands from 10M,6M,2M,1.25M,70cm and it'll do MURS and GMRS. The BF-F8HP Pro will do 2M, 1.25M, 70cm,MURS and GMRS and the nice thing is that you have 10 channel banks of 100 channels each so you can put the frequencies you want into their own bank and not have to deal with the ones you don't want at that moment. The radios aren't necessarily "legal" to TX on all those frequencies but I honestly have never heard of someone being busted for using a HAM radio on GMRS or MURS so you'd probably be ok. P.S. I have a quick look at each radio on my YouTube channel by the same name.

As much as I like the BF-F8HP Pro (in many ways, "it's my baby"), I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it isn't type certified for operation on GMRS frequencies (or any other frequencies outside of the Part 97 amateur bands). It does have the most complete feature set of any of the Baofeng analog models, though. If you're just listening, you can set "SK Disable" to "PTT" and the radio will not transmit, either from the radio itself or from an accessory microphone. Of course, if you eventually get an amateur license you can just re-enable PTT.

Congratulations! The Retevis RT95 is a clone of the Anytone AT-778, a model that I do not have any experience with; but I am sure many others here do, so good luck!

IP67 also keeps out dust and dirt, not just water.

How close are these to Avondale: Base & Meridian State Wildlife Area https://pota.app/#/park/US-11982 Table Mesa BLM Recreation Management Area https://pota.app/#/park/US-11975 Lost Dutchman State Park https://pota.app/#/park/US-1061

Ahh, ok. Now I know why it wasn't on the list. Oh well, I can still have some fun outdoors when it gets cooler here with the RT95. Thanks.

Did my initial set up on the radio with HAM channels. Had to do the "unlock" for Mode2 to get 70cm to take. Still getting use to all the buttons and stuff. All in all it's working. I put one of my 771 BNC antennas on it(I have a PL259 to BNC adapter on the radio so I can change out antennas quickly) and did a test on medium power(don't want to burn up the antenna) and from my Man Cave I hit a couple repeaters so on the Yagi or the 17" Dual Band(when I get it tomorrow) it should have plenty of range when it's outside to hit all the repeaters in my area. The radio is a lot smaller than I thought it'd be. Almost makes me want to install it in my truck, LOL. I have the BTech 20v2 GMRS radio in it now so I'll just use the RT95 as a portable radio. Works well with one of my smaller 300w solar power stations too, should run the radio for quite a while off of a charge and I can always plug in a small solar panel to it to keep it charged up. Anyway, just wanted to share with ya'll. Thanks.

Local or regional parks do not qualify. Only State and Federal. It looks like the closest qualified park nearest to you is the [see my next post]

Thanks for the link. Friendship Park in Avondale, AZ isn't listed so I guess no one has activated it yet or maybe it's just too small of a local park to qualify.

Don't give up, maybe he'll get you next time.

https://pota.app/#/map

When I get back home in about a week, I'll sweep a Midland MXTA 51 and TE Connectivity/Laird/Antenex/Antenna Specialist A450 antennae and see how they perform. I don't own nor will I ever buy any non-professional quality two-way radio product so I won't be comparing a Tram 1126 B antenna.

Well, I live in the middle of a desert so.........probably not. There's a few small Parks in my area, not sure if there even on the POTA map or not. I need to get a book or something to show me all of them. I'll try to find one on Amazon.

Anywhere within the borders of each designated park! Adds interesting considerations to your enjoyment. I am still looking to do my first activation once my knee heals a bit more!

Yes, each park has a designator. You don’t need to worry about the coordinates, just give the designator. And if you do a “park to park”, record the designator of the other person’s park.

220 MHz activity in OK?! Interesting! Simplex in addition to repeaters?

Do you need an IP67 rating? Unless you engage in activities where such a spec would be meaningful, the RA89 would be yet another HH an apparently you already have a lot of those.

Don't they have special designations for each Park? It's not just GPS coordinators is it?

That's bonkers, man. Thanks for the explanation! Out of curiosity...what are you using Starlink for in your truck?

Thanks for posting your results. Your results are close to what my two 2x4SR antennas showed when tested on the 1.25m band. I have not hooked up my KG-XS20H to either antenna to test yet as there is not any 1.25m activity in my area.

Same here. I have the QYT ham version of the same radio and I ended up using it as a dedicated 1.25 meter unit. I did leave 2m and 70cm frequencies on it and I put some of my favorites on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th displays. If you're fine with doing something like that, it's a good unit for the price. The ham version does a full 25 watts on 1.25 meters (mine actually does 27) whereas most other tri-band radios do ~5 watts on 1.25m. The only other tri-band radio I'm aware of that outputs 25 watts on 1.25m is the Anytone AT-5888UV III, which is what I eventually settled upon for my mobile. I will say the little QYT radio has good audio both tx and rx. There's nothing wrong with it exactly, but it's very inexpensive ($89 IIRC) and as such has some limitations. In a GMRS application, I think they'd be less significant but still perhaps a bit limiting.