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Agreed. I just saw a discussion on another forum where most of the participants are 100 percent convinced that a portable "repeater" consisting of a Chinese dual bander in an ammo can with a battery, crossbanding from GMRS to 2 Meters, and a few Chinese dual band HTs to access it, is an awesome setup that can't possibly have any technical problems. And the illegality of it is just a minor technicality and not worth discussing beyond saying nobody will really notice nor care. To those guys a couple of commercial UHF rigs, a simple controller and a pair of antennas with feedlines is way too complicated to even consider.

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Buy Two-Way Radios went and confirmed that the extended battery on the radio WILL fit the case. They tried it themselves. So that’s good!

Don't get me started on that! There are some lids around here that I have no clue what their legal callsign is, because I have never heard the first half of it!

Access is not bad. It is on the circuit board that is behind the front panel. With the top and bottom covers off, the front panel pops off via a couple of clips. Then a couple of screws hold the board in place. You don't have to disconnect the ribbon cable; just flip the board over. It also gives you a perfect opportunity to pull the keypad out and clean it. Or better yet, replace it with a nice new, white one that is intended for the 863G. It fits, is not expensive and in my opinion, the white keys look better. Software programming is simpler than FPP. FPP is just something that is nice to have, just in case. I didn't expect that Used Radios would remove the resistor. But if you can get them to enable FPP in software when they program it, if you ever get around to removing the resistor yourself, FPP will then work without any further software programming. In that case you could add a couple of additional channels to your existing 15 channels, without ever needing to connect it to a computer. If you get your ham license and want to program some ham frequencies in your radio, you will definitely need to be able to program it yourself. You will also need to tweak a couple of things in the radio to get it to work properly down in the ham band. It will still work fine on GMRS, too. I've done that on a few of them too, so just hit me up for the info when you need it.

Look at how little filtering the RT-22 has. There's all sorts of unpopulated pads on the production model that aren't on the FCC submitted model. I bet those harmonics aren't 50dB down on production models. Again, you're in a highly unconventional RF environment, RF power coming from the Candelabra transmitters through a typical UHF passband (370-530 MHz) should be in the ballpark of 0dBm. Most people are around -50dBm. That's a HUGE difference. That said, CCRs aren't meant to be used on fixed antennas; they're designed to be used as portable radios. Most handhelds will show measurable desense on a high-gain base antenna, CCR or not. The typical CCR construction with a wide-open frontend happens to have a lot more desense. In open spaces away from other transmitters, they have a slight advantage due to less filtering loss. They have their place, and that's on-site business use on the hip; can't desense if the strongest transmitter is the repeater you're using. They also work good enough for amateur use that people keep buying them. Few people in reality will cite receive performance as a reason to upgrade from a D878UV or something to a Motorola or Kenwood, it's mostly for audio quality. Over here, where the noise floor is high on VHF, I get better coverage on GMRS than MURS, and better 800 MHz Part 90 reception than 460 MHz Part 90 reception. In my experiences with line-of-sight conditions, the higher gain from UHF antennas gives better audio (helps to make up for deep fades, which are briefer on UHF), while in mobile-to-mobile situations with some separation VHF has an advantage in punching through terrain. UHF has much better spot coverage. For mobile-to-mobile operation, ~50W out into a gain antenna on GMRS should give universally better coverage than your Part 95 compliant MURS setup. Portable-to-portable simplex will be much more variable due to terrain. Noise floor is also an important consideration in urban environments, and lower frequencies will have more noise than higher frequencies.

I desolder resistors on all three 880 I have. It is SMD resistor, so cannot be bent. You probably can carefully crush it with wire cutter, but I think, desoldering it safer.

Well, I can't say I agree on your first point (see below), but, I do agree whole-heartedly with your conclusion. Agreed. In open space, VHF will travel further, have lower path loss and better building penetration than UHF (See this paper for more information). On the other hand, UHF may actually work better inside a building because of signal splatter and reflection.

I installed a back rack on my new JT as its a soft top. It has the bracket also. It works OK, but not as good as my F150 with a drilled NMO with same 1/4 wave antenna. I mostly talk simplex and it is noticeably different although both sweeps show the same on a VNA. Its the only solution I have on the JT so it is what it is. I would prefer a roof mount NMO. In regards to the NMO mount get the good sealed mount. I run the Larsen thick mount as the standard NMO wont fit the steel plate. I got mine from antenna farm - https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/larsen-nmokhfcxthk-1161

Gosh, Doesn't anybody have an opinion here.

Oh, not to forget the heating taking place on one's cross-band radio from the 'extended keyup times'...

Yes... a repeater to a repeater is usually not a good time. Plus, there is delays in key up times, leading to a word or 3 missing from the start of your transmission.

I had some appointments at the VA Hospital in Chicago last Friday. When done for the day I drove up to the top deck of the parking garage (8 stories!) and had a ball in 20m phone for about an hour on my FT-857. I tried 10m for a bit but no one was on the air and no one answered any CQ's...

I've tried many times to participate in nets via cross-band and found it most unsatisfactory. Why one may reasonably ask? Simple, if the hang time on the remote repeater is long, it's difficult to get an word in edgewise! For some reason a lot of people won't wait for the repeater to drop before keying up, especially during a round of check ins.. Go figure!