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They are so fun to screw with. Now that's entertainment.

Yes, just ignore the warning about out of range, radio will work. I do not have sophisticated equipment, just a simple power meter, and I do not see any difference in power between ham band and GMRS band. Listening to the signal on another radio also do not show anything unusual. Talk Around - I do not use it, I just programmed simplex frequencies with different PL/DPL codes. Pretty much all of my use is on simplex, anyway.

Regarding rooftop antennae? www.ventenna.com

My personal use-case is mostly caravanning, much like what CB would be used for in decades past. Just this last weekend, I had an hour-long conversation while driving on 22-22 (channel 22, 141.3) I also plug radios into my hearing protection when doing something loud ever since a couple hurricanes ago (chainsaws are loud!). But generally, lately, I favor FRS radios for the occasional around-the-house or around-the-store thing now, because they're smaller and easier to carry than GMRS or MURS radios I own. One of these days, I'm putting up a Ventenna and setting up a home base radio doing 40-50 watts and/or a garage repeater, but that's pretty niche utility for me; scanning on handhelds produces basically no traffic around here, and I'm not super hopeful of reaching my neighbors.

Not yet. Enjoying my MXT-275 in spite of that, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBrXb44fBc Trying for an install like this. Edit: Already bought the parts, just holding out for an antenna I like. The original plan for a fender-mounted Sti-Co covert antenna is on hold pending saving up about $400, and an RF safety evaluation because being in the same plane with 50 watts and a high-gain antenna gives me pause. Yes, the 275 only does 15 watts, but I'm not willing to limit myself to 15 watts in the long term. Now I'm looking at a Meso Customs brake light with NMO mount. Better visibility, AND no new holes in the hullmetal! Downside is it costs $290. Upside is that it frees me from spending $317 for the covert antenna, or that I could save that for a CB mount at some point in the future. Edit: Hm. A $290 mount and antenna cost about the same as the $317 Sti-Co antenna, come to think of it.

I would agree that they are not too worried about making them fully inter-compatible with legacy radios and setups in the wild now. I can see why, but there are some people who are about GMRS (die hard) that would like to try the products on their repeaters to attract more users who don't want to feel like they need a degree in radio to get in. I was told by a Midland rep, the wideband, and Split tone issue would be addressed this year in product updates. I'll be the blue boy in the corner now.

Around by me there seems to be more business use of the frequencies than anything else. Mainly what I hear are the cheap "bubble pack" FRS radios. They're easy to identify due to the funny "Roger Beeps" you hear. FRS is legal for business use as far as I know. Some local retail and manufacturing business, and typically during the day the cleaning crews at the nearby hotels use them. I hear very little personal or family use however. When I do it's mostly after Xmas with kids and lasts for a few days until the novelty wears off and or the batteries die.

Okay, I'm hooked. I was walking out to our local crop share pickup today when a neighbor texted me and asked if I knew what the huge plume of smoke is rising from near Alexandria, Virginia. Nothing (yet) on the news. I had my radio with me because I was doing a couple of antenna/signal tests anyway, so I hopped on the local repeater and asked for anyone nearby to provide a visual situation report. Within a minute, I had 3 separate responses. Turned out to be a huge construction fire, now at 5 alarms. The local news story hit their web site and alert system > 30 minutes later. (See https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2020/02/massive-fire-engulfs-fairfax-county-construction-site/) No big deal, I suppose, but I will add that from my vantage point, the smoke was along the glide path into DCA (Reagan National) airport. I'm the son of a retired 747 pilot (and fighter/aerobatics RAF team), so big plumes of smoke near airports have always made me uneasy, since long before 9-11. Anyway, LOVE my GMRS comms now that I've learned about the world of repeaters out there. I'll be taking my Ham technician class exam in a couple weeks as well. I'm hooked. Cheers, Ken (WRFC318)

There is a reason we are suppose to clear the air for emergency traffic. Sometimes the phones go down, or the battery dies, or we leave them home. Such an incident happened to a family member on her way to work. A vehicle had taken out a pole, continued on into a fenced off area containing a cell tower destroyed a trailer that was in there. The cell tower went down and all cell coverage dropped. Having seen all this, and being an emt, she called by radio and gave me what info she had and her location, I then relayed the info through to the PD using a neighbors phone (We use cell phones so no landline in the house.) Officers were dispatched and driver was charged with DUI. Turns out the trailer was running as a temporary controller until a part could be replaced in the little brick hut next to the tower. When the car struck the trailer it damaged the coax jumper going to the tower and the equipment inside. When it went down the next closest tower was about 5 miles out with heavy pine forests and hills in-between them.

The radio was only a few days old when it broke. The Ham Radio Outlet gave me a brand new radio and sent the damaged one back for analysis. It may be a month or so before we hear back. They may never tell me what the result is... but at least the HRO took good care of me.