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Now why would I want to use the $250 Billion dollar system when I can use the $500 system.....

Yes there are many different antenna mounting options available. I would personally go with the type of mount @SteveShannon mentioned before going with a standard NMO mount on a Corvette. But that's just me. A Corvette is out of my humble price range and I would never go drilling into such a vehicle. And while not 100% necessary, One will still want to find a way to mount a sheet of metal under the antenna mount for better performance. And that would mean removing the headliner if putting the antenna on top of the car. Again, I personally wouldn't want to take the chance of messing the headliner up on an expensive sports car. Like I said, it's all perspective. I'm on a fixed income and can't even afford something like a Corvette or even a big fancy SUV or some of the bigger trucks and Jeeps.

Simple, use other forms of communication as GMRS isn't the only form of it. What did you do before you heard of GMRS?

On Long Island they have the BTG repeater system that sucks up at least 3 of the channels and covers the entire area. Not sure if they have more. So it's hard to escape them.

A glass mount doesn’t sacrifice much either, but there are nice looking kits that replace the factory shark fin with a gps antenna and NMO mount which do not require additional drilling.

Man, she must have iron hands.

Not sure how common this is, because lots of us are fortunate enough to have easy access to public and high quality repeaters. But what if you are in area with no public / open repeaters which work for you? And the repeater owner just happens to own the only repeater in the area you can reach? And without it you have no repeater to access. And your comm plan includes the use of a repeater. Meaning you have no other options than to pay to play, or build your own high quality repeater. Not looking for specific examples of this scenario. Just wanted to let any members in this situation know paying might indeed be your only option. And if paying is their only option, they really are not breaking any boundaries of human stupidity if paying is the only way to meet their needs. They are simply meeting market supply and demand expectations. Not apples to apples, but kind like the person living in a very rural area is not stupid for paying a lot for satellite internet if they want it.

As mentioned above, I hoard solder with lead as well...often found at garage sales. Coming back to the thread after a few days, dropping this meme picture.... I must admit though, I have burned myself and things around me over the years with a hot soldering iron. I have a co-worker from the oil industry that was a military veteran (like me) that still gives me a "demerit" for the burn mark in a plastic cart, where I let the soldering iron slip. That permanent melt mark was while soldering Motorola PR1500 handhelds that had broken antenna connectors ~ 2008 or so.

I have been pretty good at leaving a paper trail (or Internet trail), so the correct people know what I am up to......it does "out" the boot lickers though, often. If you just pay out the rope far enough, most people will not only pull the rope, but hang themselves with it. The ones that don't, I assist as much as possible......keep good people around you, and let the rest fall by the wayside.

And don't forget to sniff the fumes from arcing mercury. Oh, the good old days.

Fiberglass repair and painting is extremely easy and invisible with little effort.

I stand corrected for calling them junk when the proper term is scrap. If a manufacturer can't use stainless steel set screws to hold the whip in, they are substandard scrap.

Why, for Christ's sake would anyone be stupid enough to use a pay for use repeater? I have to say it, it breaks every terrestrial and celestial boundary of human stupidity to do so. If you operate a repeater professionally and it has great features the members will voluntarily donate to it. Too many choices out there than paying some clown for nothing.

Exactly, If I were a repeater owner using "creative accounting" to avoid showing a profit, I would be much more worried about the IRS getting involved. If those folks think you aren't declaring income they can get pretty intense. In other words, Audit TIme.

The public frequencies are free. You can transmit on simplex without incurring a charge using the hardware you own. If you want to use a privately owned repeater then you either need to have permission from the owner or pay the membership fee / dues of the club. Complaining that a privately owned repeater should be free to use is just plain dumb. Would you let a stranger off the street drive your car on public streets because it free to drive on public streets. if you're upset about it, go set up your own repeater and open it to the public.

Just to be fair, @Socalgmrs has said good things about Midland antennas; it’s the radios that he disparages.

The public frequencies are free. You can transmit on simplex without incurring a charge using the hardware you own. If you want to use a privately owned repeater then you either need to have permission from the owner or pay the membership fee / dues of the club. Complaining that a privately owned repeater should be free to use is just plain dumb. Would you let a stranger off the street drive your car on public streets because it free to drive on public streets. Like what OffRoaderX said, if you're upset about it, go set up your own repeater and open it to the public.

I made the change to “unusual”.

AS others have stated, its about location, location, and location. Scadacore has tools that will allow you to see if there are obstacles, like hills, between your work and house. You can also use it to see which repeaters can be used (assuming you know where the repeater is physically located) between your house ad the repeater and your work and the same repeater. Of course, just listening for the same repeater at both locations also works. You'll need to test if you can reach the repeater using your handheld at your office and home as it may require either better antennas or more power at both locations. The key piece in any situation is the antenna used. My recommendation is for a small (20-25W mobile at the house with an external antenna and not a handheld. Two handhelds are great for unit to unit conversations when you are outside, but can be iffy in connecting to repeaters because of the lower power/

I get more pleasure taking a crap.

i've been using Midland antennas on my mobile's for about 4 years now and won't use anything else. To the guy that calls Midland 'junk'. I challenge you to prove to me that you are correct. With all the actual test i have done using numerous other antennas, i can promise that Midland antennas outperform many others.

I think the only profit to be had is going to be barely enough to recoup the investment, if even that.. A guy i recently met whom is also a HAM operator had over a dozen GMRS repeaters. And he wasn't using cheap equipment. He admits to charging membership fees to make money. His membership numbers aren't that great to make him a fortune. My math tells me he was barely scraping the barrel to pay for the operation. The guy is a 'radio nut' he enjoys radio and nothing else. He is obviously doing what he does to keep himself occupied and happy. He was linking all his repeaters and he believed he was operating his repeaters within the rules, but after the FCC clarified the rules on GMRS linking he is in process of decommissioning.. I bought one of his repeaters and it's a damn nice piece of equipment. Some of his sites, he does pay tower lease so even an added expense. I still scratch my head why someone will spend the amount of money they do. I finally concluded, it doesn't matter to me,, it's there 'business'

If you’re just using it in a park do you really need a repeater? An ht does 3-5 miles minimum, some times up to 60plus. Why would you need a repeater in a park.

I'm sure that you can get at least a couple of people from the local amateur radio club to help. Most enjoy helping especially when it comes to putting antennas up. And if they do help and try talking you into getting our amateur license, you can always tell them that you want to get your feet wet first with GMRS. We have a couple of members that struggle to get their amateur license due to health issues. We haven't pushed them into it and have suggested they start with GMRS. They have all taken our advice and are on the air and using the GMRS repeater.

I guess it's all in perspective to each individual. I personally would not want to go drilling into any Corvette for a NMO mount. The bodies are still primarily made for either fiberglass or carbon fiber or a mix of the two. Just me, but any type of antenna mount other than a glass mount would look out of place on an expensive sports car. I generally don't care for glass mount antennas but that would be what I would go with in this situation.