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I thought that, but I just wondered if anyone thinks they should be.

I will agree with Randy (OffroaderX) and others. Don't put all your egg's in the GMRS basket. But I think the off road guys will agree, more is better. IS GMRS good for off roading, yes, most likely. But it can't be the only radio or method of communications in your rig. A CB radio is a great addition, and possibly a ham radio, if you have the motivation to get the license. But, repeating what others have said, A Garmin InReach is going to be king. But you need to understand the differences in what and who you are calling, and what level of 'emergency' you are in the middle of. A flat tire, if you don't have any ability to change it is a problem. If you are in a creek bed and there a flood warnings then it's an issue. If your rig has flipped, and you are stuck under it in the creek bed and there is a flash flood warning, then you need IMMEDIATE assistance. That's the InReach, forget GMRS and all the rest. The other thing to consider is are you wheeling with others. As many have said, never wheel alone. And that's really sound advice. But it's not always reasonable, or we sometimes choose to ignore it for whatever reason we can come up with. We don't know your rig, setup, or what level of extreme wheeling you are doing. Trail running on groomed trails is far different from rock bouncing in Moab. And we don't really know how remote you are running. If your trails run behind family homes that are occupied all year long, it's not the same as there being one cabin in the woods for 5 miles in any direction that while could be broken into in an extreme circumstance for shelter, would otherwise only be occupied one week a year during some hunting trip. Gauge what you are doing with what you are needing. Ultimately it's cheap insurance to have more than you need than not enough communication ability. And even then, the InReach, as far as I know, will work anywhere at any time. Something else to consider as well. And this goes against the historical thought process. T-Mobile is now partnering with StarLink to offer cell service via satellite. That might be an option worth considering as well. The phone of course should have some app on it that will pinpoint your location via satellite, like your GPS does. Again, something below the InReach. You have to understand that the InReach is like calling 911 without saying anything. They just send people to that location and they will come quickly. Inreach has some text function, but it's mostly a distress beacon. A 911 call will generate a similar response, but with more information being given to the 911 dispatcher, they can send a proper response to the actual situation. If they don't know what or who to send, everyone gets sent, and it's treated as a life and death situation.

It hadn’t been nullified at the time of the video and banter. The FCC really should have made at least an attempt to announce it.

I'll have to look at our Bridgecom repeater next time I am at the repeater site. I doubt it is Part 95 certified as it is the exact same repeater that Bridgecom sells for the amateur 70cm band. The only difference is how they program them before shipping. There is a person near me that owns several GMRS repeaters along with several 2m and 70cm repeaters. He uses Motorola Quantar repeaters for all of them.

I remember when you made the Ch19 video and all the banter on here leading up to it. No one has successfully countered it to this day... so It still stands as the only authoritative source! LoL The sad part was, many of us (myself included) had no idea the Line A issue was nullified, which didn't help.

I tried

they never will.. I can tell you, every single one of my HAM buddies with GMRS repeaters, all use Kenwood's, Motorola's, Harris, Hytera radios.. (non-part 95) If the FCC ever decided to enforce this rule, it would be impossible for them to detect them. Outside of putting their eyes on them.. And that would never happenn

Of course I am correct! How dare you have the insolence to think otherwise! .. But..Yah..

So,, im one of those that as at least a dozen of Baofengs. just checking my cabinet, i can see that Offroader is correct. Baofeng does have a wide selection of boxes, even with same model radios.. Ranges from fancy boxing to plain cardboard boxes with Baofeng titles on them.

This is correct - although Retevis has had one for 3 or 4 years, but before that, there were none - Yet with thousands of non part 95 approved repeaters out there, nobody is in jail.

Portable devices typically are not grounded.

That has been my understanding also. Most just use a Part 90 certified repeater. You can find used Motorola Quantar UHF repeaters cheaper than what Bridgecom and B-Tech want for their GMRS repeaters. And the Quantar is way better. If one goes with the Quantar 125, they just need to make sure to turn the power level down so that the 50 watt max is not exceeded.

So, to expand on the subject a little, what about a situation where the entire system is self-contained such as a portable setup? Battery, radio, and antenna, but no connection to outside power. What does that need for grounding? Obviously, it doesn't need to be kept at the same potential as the house, since there's no house and it's not getting power from a shared system. Since you have a pole holding an antenna up in the air, does it need something for lightning protection? Is there a way or even a need to equalize potentials among the components?

It is my understanding that there never been a certified Part 95 repeater available until the Retevis, Midland, and BTech came out within the last year or so.

I was assuming they could. That's what I mean that there's no security with a radio signal. I can see where that might prove useful if you're working with a large group of people where some things need to be heard by everyone, but some things only need to go to a subgroup. I have no use for it now, but there were times in the past when I would have found it helpful. Interesting to know.

This is an incorrect statement and @TerriKennedy should be ashamed for saying something so ridiculous when he obviously has no idea what he is talking about: there is no such thing as a "standard Baofeng box" - i have, or have had, nearly every radio manufactured by Baofeng (dozens), and they have a very wide variety of boxes. Some of them plenty large enough to fit a 15" antenna in diagonally SEVERAL of those radios (and radios from other brands) have shipped with 15" antennas and they all very easily fit inside the smaller boxes, as @WRTC928 stated.

We're just too Old Steve lol!

There are a LOT of words in this thread but I would like to point out that the FCC has never..not once, not ever, gone after anyone for simply using a non Part 95 certified repeater on GMRS... Never....

KINDA .. IF all the radios are compatible with the feature and IF all the radios are correctly configured, you can use the Group Call (also has other names depending on the manufacture) feature to talk to only certain radios in your group. HOWEVER - Radios not configured to do this and radios not compatible will ALL HEAR everything you say — Basically it is a fancy squelch or call-tone limiting only what the radios configured for your groups can hear (they can only hear their group), but all other radios can still hear everything.

Official GMRS highway/road channel = 19 Official GMRS off-road/4X4 channel = 16 Source: I saw it on Youtube

i thought i seen a video that said channel 19 for traveling.

I'm aware of the use of DTMF codes to send instructions to a repeater or other device. Are you saying they can be used HT-to-HT or mobile-to-mobile to determine who receives your signal? Yes, I know there's no such thing as true security with any unencrypted radio signal, but I can envision situations where it would help reduce confusion.

I did what @LeoG said in my opinion this is the best way

As the rules are written they imply any radio transmitter that is certified for another service can be used on Part 95, GMRS, so long as the frequency, bandwidth and power requirements are met at a minimum. This is the problem with using Ham radios with the MARS/CAP mod's. Your typical Ham radio only has a Part 15 certification, which is mainly to ensure it can't be used to monitor cell phone frequencies. This would also preclude using a couple of Ham only mobiles to build a do-it-yourself GMRS repeater. That seems to be one of the advantages of using Part 90 radios. There are a LOT of quality used LMR, Part 90, radios to be had for reasonable prices. There are a few currently manufactured radios that work too. The link below points to one of my UHF radios. It will operate on FM/DMR or FM/NXDN depending on the firmware loaded. I have radios setup for both digital modes. As noted the radios I tend to get cover the 400 to 470 MHz band spread since this includes the armature band from 420 to 450 MHz. One point Hams forget is we are secondary users on the 70cm band, the government is primary, so it shouldn't be a surprise the radio has Part 90 certification over the range. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new The attached FCC grant shows the radio is certified for Part 90 from 406.1 to 470 MHz, so it meets the requirements, and I'm assuming legal under the rules for use on GMRS, just can't use the digital feature there, until the FCC gets off it's arse and makes some changes first. Oh, for those wondering what's up with the weird lower band spread frequency, 406.1 MHz, should read this. https://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/emergency-406-beacons/ I would avoid operating anywhere near this frequency. Some of my other commercial radios have a builtin GPS and can transmit position info. Not sure if it's compatible with the PLB radios. FCC NX-1300 Grant-4.pdf

I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't break the rules by accident. If the radio isn't type-certified for GMRS, I think the user should at least know that. Apparently, some people wouldn't use the radio if it isn't type-certified, at least so they claim. Probably nothing official will happen to someone who makes a pest of him/herself, but they'll certainly earn the hatred of a lot of fellow radio users. Of course, pests usually don't care or they're even happy about being hated, so that's not really a deterrent. The person who figures out how to put an a-hole filter in a radio will be able to buy a private island.