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Those radios are narrowband, and may not produce enough PL/DPL deviation to open a wideband repeater.

The performance of the Btech has been quite adequate for my uses. To the repeater its about five miles through hills and trees. It is located on the flatland and designed to beam back up here into the hills. Simplex, I can cover everyone from my location within five miles using the Nagoya 701c antenna. Again, hills and trees. Its the Gold Country here in far Northern California just to give you an ideda of the terrain. And I am not using the radio for rag chewing. Others may use GMRS for different purposes and that is fine. Would I recommend the Btech radio to a beginner in GMRS? Sure. Maybe its heresy around here, but it is a radio. I don't think I would recommend any of their mobiles. Would I also recommend moving beyond the Btech into part 90/95 equipment like Kenwood, or Icom, etc? You betcha. But just like in amateur radio, the CCRs provide an entry. (nothwithstanding all the non licensed uses, etc). Used properly, one have find great enjoyment from their Potato radio. They can talk to ISS, Satellites, as well do APRS and a whole host of other things. In fact Digital radio is being lead not from D-Star, or Fusion, but DMR and CCRs. (Think Anytone). I went into my purchase of the Btech knowing full well what they are. But heck, the Yaesu FT-60 new I had to send back as it would not TX...so tell me again?

And page 17 tells you how to set it.

Yes, the repeater will not go online w/o a tone to open it up. I do not know Midland radios, but I think you need a translation sheet to set the tone. it will give you the midland setting for a given tone. Keep in mind the output tone of said repeater may not be the same as the input tone.

I have a very limited radio (Midland MXT400). I did turn on the repeater channels that takes me to channels 22 (RX 462-725 TX 467.725Mhz) I do hear you guys(I'm assuming) with full strength from Whittier. Not sure what PL/DPL..and not sure what a transmit tone is.. do I need this to be able to connect with repeaters?

Not wanting to get into the CCR battle here, but it is my understanding that Midland mobiles are re-badged Luitons. If I am wrong, please correct me. Our local area started a GMRS Neighborhood Radio Fire Watch. It has come in handy during the PG and E power shutoffs. I purchased a Btech GMRS V1 hand held with the matching Nagoya 701c antenna. It was a hurried purchase as my wife needed something for when I was to be gone for two weeks working in another city. I did not have time to aquaint her with a mobile system and how to set up for use with alternate power supply, much less getting a base antenna, etc, etc... Maybe I have a good one, but I can reach the new repeater easily from my qth. I will invest in a different system, but at the time the Btech met our needs. My goal was to have her be able to reach at least one other person...and that it does and more so. The Btech was heard easily during nets whereas some others running the Midland products could not be heard. Part of that is of course due to antenna, location and all those variables. We live in hilly, treed terrain, so that factors in too. All I can say is that for the money, the Btech has worked for us. I have another half a dozen various dual and triband hand helds made by the big three, as well as two different mobile/base radios, etc...so, while far from being any expert, I do know enough to get myself in trouble. Anyway, that has been my experience. I even purchased one of those darn Btech hand helds for my neighbor across the road, He, licensed Extra, has part 90 equipment that needs ancient DOS programs to do anything...with the Btech, I was able to put in all the desired fire frequencies and air tac frequencies that he wanted and gave him the radio. It is what it is and will probably fail. But we aren't rag chewing for hours on end so it might last for a while. As for the original question, the UV-82C is not Part 95 compliant and technically not allowed to be used for GMRS. I will leave it at that. If there is a wildfire and PG and E has the power shut off...no one will be questioning which radio I will be using to find out which road is open or closed due to fire. Will it be Luiton or Midland? Btech GMRS, or UV 82x3, or Anytone, or an Icom 4001? 73

Can't get blood from a stone. America frequently tries, which is how you spend twenty years in jail moving from trial to trial.

The benefit of using a narrow channel is the lower noise along better sensitivity and range. The advantage of wideband is the capability to transfer higher data rates. I would stay away from narrow band unless you want to forget about digital and hi-fidelity. As far as repeater pairs go, CTCSS and DCS were created for a reason. If you are using tone or digital code squelching, unless the repeaters are within miles of each other, you can have potentially hundreds of repeaters in place within a 500 mile radius and not interfere with another repeater. The only exception I could potentially see there is if traffic went up 100 fold and all repeater owners started using 200' towers; which I don't see happening. Additionally, there is a massive shortage of people willing to spend insane amounts of money for proper repeater equipment, site rentals and maintenance costs, just to allow other people to user their system for free. (Hard to imagine, I know.) Opening up more pairs isn't really a need.