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It can be worse than that. Some cruise lines make money renting out radios to travelers who know their cell phones won't work at sea. Scanning around any of the many cruise ports in Florida leads to much hilarity as one listens to conversations about the buffet specials. Hopefully, the crew knows enough to not match the radio freqs with anything important. I've taken radios on cruises to foreign countries more than once. I ask the officers what freqs are used for such things as port operations, on-board comms, ship-to-ship, etc. and underline the fact that it's RX only, no TX, that I'm interested in. Most officers are cooperative and curious, others have told me to lock it in the safe and not to touch it for the remainder of the trip; apparently it is illegal to just listen to some channels in some places. I always bring the cheapest, POS CCR in the inventory in case it gets confiscated. Of course, one could avoid all this by just scanning on a hacked UV-5R; at least that what I read on the internet.

I believe Fry's in Old People Country (Sun CityWest) was using MURS and the other day I saw the employees wearing DLRs on their belts.

Still is mostly Public Safety and some SMRs

You might have had the BF-F8HP and not the Pro model which has GPS and a larger screen.

I don't use the 430 section of the 70cm band but this does relate to some past discussions here. https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-files-comments-to-protect-70-centimeter-amateur-band

Forgive my ignorance -- T-band was public safety before '21, right? What's the deal with it now?

I agree.. I lost mine last year. Left it in my kayak and it disappeared somewhere on the highway. It was a 3 year old radio. I don't recall able to custom the screen though.. Did they add that option from the original. I think my screen was not as big as this one..

BaofengTech/BTech has really out done themselves with the BF-F8HP Pro IMHO. This radio has everything I've been looking for in an HT, it's easy to program with the BTech software and even lets you add a Custom Start-Up pic. I did a vid of a quick walk around showing some of the features and showing the really awesome programming software too. Anyway, enjoy the vid and thanks for watching. TN.Frank Out!

What’s even more confusing is that the premise in OP’s initial post (that the FRS channels are different than the GMRS channels), has been removed over time!

I see these statements often on forums (rhetoric or not) and am always curious what motivates the speaker to leave the confines of his (rarely a her) otherwise busy day to NOT answer the question, but yet criticize its asking! I always answer: 1) Some people like or need to be spoon-fed information and concurrently some people get gratification and are well heeled at researching and reporting the information. 2) Technical topics tend to get out-dated with time, so reviewing them with a new question (and response) gets an up-to-date answer; and 3) Posting on forums helps answer the question for others, too. One person's looking up his own answer, helps no one else! But at the end of the day, there is always someone like @UncleYoda who has a need to raise that inquiry and I am happy to fulfill that need with MY answer!

Work picked up some little Retevis rt68 radios to use and I wanted to use my personal UV-5r so I went on their website to see which frequencies they used and what the CTCSS codes were. Once I programed them into the UV-5r they worked like a charm. So, YES they are programming CTCSS codes from the factory into their radios. You either need to get into them with CHIRP or similar program and remove the codes or program the other radios with the codes and things will work.

I finished tidying up all the wiring and snipped all the zip tie tails. I...made a bit of a mess

Do you mean where you said this? I linked to a standard-capacity battery for the UV-5r which is USB-C chargeable. If we're being semantically pedantic, you didn't specifically say there were none; you said you didn't know of any, so I provided a link to one. The one I linked to doesn't need to be attached/detached via screws. Use whatever battery works best for you. Fortunately, there are plenty of options.

I did not say there were none; try reading it again. I never specifically searched for USB-C type because it's nothing special to me (any plug that works is just as good). Why can't 709 do his own searches anyway (rhetorical)? If those short/fat ones suit you, that's fine. I don't want batteries that have to be screwed/unscrewed (I swap batteries and disconnect to charge) and not clear if it still allows belt clip. I liked the longer ones; they fit/feel better in my hands and give me a place to hold onto that isn't covering a button. But I started going back to standard capacity because several of the extended ones split apart and more of the small ones suits me better than fewer big ones.

I live in a small desert community with basically zero crime.. Whenever someone does something stupid and gets arrested, which is seldom, the local town makes it sound like we are biggest crime ridden community in the country.. I've lived in L.A. and Sacramento, people need to get a lesson

I've noticed some weird things going on here too. The last update he sent out was directing to the wrong repeater accounts when you taged on a specific account.. Ii.e. f you taged on a repeater in Ohio, it was directing to an a repeater in New York. Weird things like that????

I’ve reported your issue.

Our work here is done!

WoW! That says it all…

Exavtly what I am looking for: thanks for the link! I have ordered one to try it out.

Yep, HF or linked repeaters are the only likely solutions, but that's all ham radio.

OP That kind of range is unlikely with GMRS, especially given the physical obstacles highlighted in @amaff’s post, but amateur radio on HF (lower frequencies than VHF and UHF) can probably communicate between Olympia and Puyallup. They also may have linked repeaters for VHF or UHF, which are allowed in amateur radio but not GMRS. Both communities have amateur radio clubs. Consider contacting them for more information: The Olympia Amateur Radio Society: http://olyham.blogspot.com/ Valley Amateur Radio Club: https://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/valley-amateur-radio-club/type:club

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 'probably not'.

You would be shocked to see how many people don't know this fact. I can imagine US tourists using their FRS radios while the ship is docked in a foreign port and those frequencies are used by the local fire and police.

That’s okay, it was a very good answer anyway.