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Kinda what they/we do in the military to some extent at small unit level.

I have been in GMRS for about a year now and have had fun with it. I recently got a HAM license. I'm not sure what to call myself... GMAM - (Gee Ma'am) SPAM - Not completely HAM but there is some in there 'GMRS HAM - (Gee Mrs. Ham) - O.G. GMRS and HAM Radio Dork - self evident HARS I think I will settle with John. Kinda smooth, flows...Yeah that's it, John.

If the radio you are trying to talk to has its antenna mounted sideways (horizontally polarized) you’ll get better results by mounting your antenna the same way, unless the signal is bouncing off something which also can change polarity.

The H3s are know to come in (new) as transmit defective. If you have a second one try that one. It will actually transmit a good couple hundred yards even though it's power output is very low, no where near the claimed 5 watts. Maybe reverse the tones and try that. You might be confused as to which is which. It gets me every once in a while when they use encode and decode instead of tx and rx. And definitely what SteveShannon said.

I ordered a couple M-5R Baofeng Radios for work(wanted something smaller than the TalkPod A36 I'm currently using)and I did open a blank .csv file and did an input from a UV-5R program I had saved then added Air Bands to it and saved it off with no issues at all. That way I'll have the code plug ready when the radios get here tomorrow. I've also ordered 2 more AR-5RM's during Prime Day($33 bucks plus shipping, can't beat that deal) and set them up to scan Air Bands. I also ordered a couple 120MHz-300MHz antennas for them so they should work better picking up Air Bands AND with MURS with would be my "Go To" if I'm out and about since the VHF Freq. will theoretically travel further and I'm also being a "Bad Boy" and running them on High Power since no one really uses MURS anyway. LOL. All in all once you figure out a couple of the quirks that these radios have I still think they're one of the best "Bang for the Buck" deals you can get.

My ignorance is showing but I have seen antennas mounter horizontally. Why?

I don't want to put holes in the roof of my pickup. I found a bracket they attached to the rear of my bed. I posted a video of it another fellow did earlier. It works great. I do have a metal bedcover and I think that helps. I have used both the Midland MTX26 and a ghost antenna. Interestingly, the ghost antenna might be slightly better.

That is correct. There are several other threads that started with someone pontificating about how others use GMRS incorrectly. None of them settled anything. This is one place where GMRS is similar to ham radio; someone thinks their way is “the only right way” even though the regulations don’t support that.

Well, we have a procedure here in the good old US of A. You follow the rules until you change the rules. Our problem is too many folks are too lazy to do the work to change the rules. Scofflaws always have excuses for their illegal behavior, in the same way illegal aliens do.

Make more. It's not going to end soon.

The MA09 antenna isn't all that bad. I found that mine wasn't really omni directional. We had a wind event and it bent the flimsy bracket I was using. When I used it while it was at a 15º tilt it was working better than it had in a while. I replaced the bracket and all of a sudden my signal went to crap again now that my antenna was vertical again. I had oriented it in the exact same direction because I have a cell phone booster antenna and I keep it pointed at the cell tower on the mast. I got this crazy idea and I rotated the antenna about 10º and reoriented the cell phone antenna and my GMRS signal got substantially better (from my house). Found that really odd that it made that much of a difference. Must have moved one of the lobes and now it's pointed at my house.

I'm sure glad I made popcorn for this.

We can break your bank guessing at what the problem might be. My feeling is that your antenna probably isn’t higher than the surrounding terrain and trees. Getting it higher can help but UHF does poorly in vegetation. Poor cable contributes by attenuating the signals in both directions, but antenna gain and visibility is by far the most important factor.

Ya, I didn't even use the cable after I saw what it was. I have the RT97S which is only 6.7 watt out of the socket and I think I had right around 2 watts at the end of the cable. Pretty pathetic.

Correct I got it as a package deal with the antenna, mic & cable. I can get about 1 1/2 miles west of me though the old oak woods & about 3 miles east though the pastures. So you guys think I need a better cable.? My antenna is a MA09 High Gain 462~467MHz GMRS Omni-Directional Base Antenna 4.5/7.2 dBi High Gain Fiberglass Antenna 5.75’ Thanks Sig

That’s correct. But RG-59 has been replaced by RG6. Sell it to someone for use on HF or lower. It’s just not suitable for VHF or UHF.

I’m just providing real life results in my situation and it was the same time of day. But, yes, two different radios. I’m trying to get a better picture of what and where different variables come into play in my area. I was able to use the MP-31 from this same street in the winter with less dense foliage.

I found a spot like that 17.5 miles from my repeater. Pretty much a foot either way and nothing. Amazing I even found the spot. And there's no way I should have even been able to touch my repeater with a mountain in the way. I know it's mine from the courtesy tone I use.

Yup, was too lazy to go look last time and couldn't remember. ends in 9 is 75 ohm ends in 8 is 50 ohm, right? Here's the roll of 50' I never used that I got with my kit. If I knew it was going to be this I wouldn't have ordered the kit.

No flames... but there are so many other things that could have contributed to your results. That fact that you didn't use the exact same radio for both tests, during the same time of day from the same location (I think), are the big items that come to mind. Slight movement can make a huge difference, too. I can stand in one spot in my driveway with my HT using 0.5w and hit a repeater 30 miles away... but if I move a few inches out of that same spot, I can't hit the same repeater with my 115w mobile and high gain antenna.

Thank you, Steve.

50 feet of RG-58 would attenuate a buttload of UHF RF.

A guy on one of the FB Groups for GMRS/FRS/MURS/CB posted: "I'm thinking off throwing out a call on my MURS Radio to see if anyone is around to talk, what do y'all think?" Besides the obvious reply about it being pretty much used for businesses for short distance comms. etc., my question back was, "what will you do for a callsign, given there are none for MURS; 'This is Cleanup on Aisle 9 monitoring, anyone around?' "

So although the output frequency is 462.550, the frequency you must transmit to the repeater is 467.550 MHz. That’s usually taken care of automatically if you select a repeater channel.

That's OK, I cheated and used the internet to do the calculation. Put in a wattage and it spits out a dBm and you subtract the dBm's and there it is.