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So, I started my personal GMRS and ham journey in January of this year for reasons that are not relevant here. Among my goals was to be able to have simplex RF comms with my wife at her office. (2.1 miles as the crow flies, through suburban northern Virginia. Small rolling hills, but plenty of RF interference along the way.) Frankly, I was disappointed by the limitations of HT<-->HT around here. I was lucky to make it 3/4 - 1 mile. Clearly, line of sight matters enormously. I got a simple j-pole antenna and tried that at home from my attic. (HOA issues.) Still HT to HT, but no luck. I got permission from the HOA to put up two 5 foot j-pole antennas and got them up yesterday. (See attached photo. Both are Ed Fong designs. One ham and one GMRS tuned.) Simultaneously, I got a 50 Watt (UHF) / 40 Watt (VHF) mobile radio. This morning, I ran a quick and informal series of quick tests with the mobile radio set up in the ham bands (70 cm and 2 m) as a cross-band repeater. (I use a 70 cm simplex channel to my home mobile, which then repeats it on 2 m out to my local repeater (W4AVA).) In short, VICTORY! The repeater connections had several flat spots for me. They're 99% gone now. I can trivially tx/rx to my wife's office location with 5 by 5 audio signal on a simplex connection. I know many folks here dismiss the Ed Fongs, but I have to say those reviews are not consistent with my experiences. In particular, the Warrenton GMRS repeater that is some 40 miles from here was completely out of range for me in the past. With the Fongs on the roof, I'm getting 5x5 signal reports consistently on that repeater -- which serves a vast footprint of NoVA and MD. YMMV. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with where I am on my personal journey. Cheers, Ken van Wyk WRFC318 / K0RVW

I am barely 3 weeks into GMRS and as impressed as I am with the performance of the GMRS radio over my prior use of CB MANY years ago, I am even more impressed with the community! Between the help I have gotten on these forums and the suggestions I have gotten while talking on the radio, I now have a system that FAR exceeds my initial expectations. So to everyone here and on the air: THANK YOU! Note to self: Try to leave well enough alone for now. Enjoy what you have before you "over tinker..."

The family aspect of the licensing (vs individual) is a definite plus, as is the fact that you can find some decent plug and play equipment off the shelf. Similar situation here, was eyeing ham, but the family aspect made gmrs a better fit for an immediate need; finding how much is really out there looks like a great complement alongside ham, which i still plan to pursue

Update. Installed yagis on both ends. We can understand every word on every channel now. Next phase, raising both by 6 feet and make sure the aim from mine is good. I was actually out on the roof in my underwear re-aiming it just now haha. I did the map aim and drew a straight line but didn't have a vantage point for beyond my house, garage roof mount on existing dish antenna j mount with a piece of toprail that probably barely clears the apex of the main roof, and it may not, didn't get on main roof to look. I think I'm close to aimed but I don't think I can get much improvement with a little more height. Stay tuned

Conceptually, that seems reasonable. But, a) I have no idea where to place such code, and isn't that essentially vox?

It is not the masses' opinion that you need to worry about. It is the opinion of the public health officials that IS something to worry about. Also, I'd say, based on the rest of the world's experience so far, that while scary, this is far more than a "scare." What does frighten me about the masses is the actions of those who seem to treat this whole thing as something akin to a bad cold and that won't affect them. I'd say such cavalier attitudes are pretty frightening especially considering the demographics of many users on this forum.