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FRS is a Family Radio Service. As in: you buy the (part 95) radios, you blabber on them, no restrictions. Families use them on camping, fishing, hiking trips, on playgrounds, on county fairs, in shopping malls. Business can use FRS if it suites the needs, like if you are a construction guy on the top of the 5-story building tired of yelling silly at your crew below. Or you are an employee at the valet parking lot. Proper certified FRS radios have fixed antennas. Anyone can monitor and listen on FRS frequencies. Anyone can perfectly transmit on FRS frequencies using FRS radio, including HAM operators. Illegal radios exist and will always exist, just like illegal guns and illegal drugs. And illegal speeding. And illegal fishing. To require to end FRS or pay for FRS license because your operations are inconvenienced, is very wrong, even if you paid $70 for 10 years. Amateur operators (HAMs) are not vital for the national security. It's a hobby, just like knitting or cat grooming. Nuclear subs, healthy economy, transportation network, energy independence, free press, sane leadership are vital for national security. You know what else is vital - a clear head on top of every citizen's shoulders.

Great points! I forgot to mention that most of my VHF DX stuff is upper side band. Its a great mode. The transceivers don't run as hot, have a higher duty cycle and are much more efficient than FM or AM.

One thing that VHF and UHF ham radio has over GMRS is the ability to use modes other than FM. Keep in mind that it is a whole different world on 2-meter and 70cm when you start playing with CW, (Morse code), TV, (yes, Television), Data, (Packet, APRS), FAX imaging, AM, and single-sideband phone modes. You will find that there are thousands of other hams playing with those modes also.

Regardless of how this turns out, the exam will still be taken. Learning new things is a lifelong passion for me. At sixty-nine however there is not a moment to lose.

That is a huge step in the wrong direction, IMHO. We need FRS & GMRS to stop sharing frequencies. Let FRS be low power narrow band and give GMRS operators more wideband frequencies. I'm tired of sharing the channels with 4 and 5 year old kids screaming at their cousin who is only 30 feet away, about how much they love play dough.

"The FCC when they approve a cell tower and a cell provider a license, require them to install and maintain a GMRS repeater." Would never every happen. I remember a group of hams who said the same thing about ham radio repeaters to help with RACES/ARES/Skywarn. If cell companies and the FCC weren't willing to work with emergency communications groups (Who by the way, often help those company's by setting up portable cell repeaters) they sure as heck wouldn't want to pay for and maintain GMRS repeaters that could be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime, while being liable for any issues that could come from such operations. The only way they would allow it would be if it was a pay-to-use system which is not allowed by FCC rules.

I would second that suggestion, Lithium battery. Specifically I would recommend a LiFePO4, LFP, battery. They have the safest chemistry out of the common Lithium battery types, light and reasonably high energy density. One other advantage to LFP batteries is the terminal voltage. At full charge they are around 13.3 or so VDC, a very good match to most mobile equipment that expects 13.8 VDC. The battery has a very flat voltage verses discharge curve so when the terminal voltage drops to 12.8 VDC the battery is almost completely discharged, like around 80 to 90 percent of the rated capacity is used. Don't try this with a lead acid battery. I've also found they have a very low self discharge rate. You can charge them up and let them sit for months and the terminal voltage hardly drops. For an Ecom application this would be an advantage. I've wreck enough Gel-Cell lead-acid batteries over the years I won't buy them anymore if the equipment can use the LFP type. Lead acid batteries don't like sitting around unless they have a trickle charger attached and don't let them sit around at less than full change, they will sulfate the plates. Neither of these conditions hurt LFP batteries. As a matter of fact one recommendation for long term storage of LFP batteries is to discharge them to around 50-80 percent of capacity, they can stay that way for months to a year or more this way without damage. While LFP batteries are much more expensive than the common lead acid type once you ruin a few lead acid batteries you'll get sick of replacing them and the cost adds up. I've had good luck with the following company for LFP batteries. https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/12v-series-lifepo4-batteries If you want to use a solar panel to recharge the battery a small MPPT controller designed specifically for LFP batteries is required. I have several from this company. https://sunforgellc.com/genasun/ I have a couple of the GV5 charge controllers, a good match for a 50 watt solar panel. For solar panels I got some from this company. https://www.renogy.com/products/solar-panels/ I have a couple of their 50 watt mono and 1 of their 30 watt mono panels. The build quality is good and they do guarantee them. On solar panels from my experience don't expect to get more than around 70 to 75 percent of the panel rating, which is derived under lab conditions, which you won't get in the field.

two caveats before you go and order QRP gear... 1. As you note, you are not allowed to transmit. 2. Actually getting a contact is not that easy and may require a LOT of time and effort. It is a little like fishing, some people are cut out for it, others not so much.

I don't have any specific recommendations. I don't operate QRP, though some of my friends and fellow club members do. I have been out in the mountains with them while operating and it it amazing to see how well they get their stuff to work. I would recommend finding a group or forum the specializes in QRP. That would be a much better resource of information. I suggested 40 meter because most people can/will only have one device. 40 meter is global comms day or night, while compared to other bands, such as 20 that works best during the day and possibly not at all at night... or 80m which works the best at night, but possibly not at all during the day. You can get much better efficiency and a smaller antenna with 20m, but you risk not having night time comms.

Honestly, the only person who can answer that is you. What does the term radio mean to you? Listening, talking, near, far, people you know, people you have never met? Data, voice, TV, morse code? Electronics, designing, building, repairing, tuning, kits? Academic theory, knowledge, understanding? I could go on. But, in regards to the items listed above, GMRS ticks off a lot fewer items than ham radio. Pretty much limited to speaking to nearby people, generally those you already know, about anything you want to talk about. Fiddling with radios is out, though you can mess with antennas. On the other hand, ham radio ticks almost the items, except a biggie, you cannot communicate about anything remotely commercial. So, talk tend to be about: your equipment, the weather, your job/career/interests/politics. I'd sum up by saying if all you want is to talk to your family or a close group of nearby friends, GMRS is probably all you will ever want or need. OTOH, if your interests go beyond that, then go ahead and get the tech license, and start studying for the general - it's not that much more difficult. In fact, if you are taking the tech license test, ask to take the general as well. There is no downside in trying. CAVEAT: I have made a lot of generalizations in this post. Some may be truer for you than ot hers. For example, with linked repeaters, you can talk to people all over the US on GMRS - but, then you can do that on Zello too. Good luck on the exam.

Plugging in the height numbers into this online calculator: http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html shows the difference in range is around 0.5 miles, distance to the horizon, more at the higher elevation. If you were located in an area that was flat its not much of a change. However you're in a bit of a depression so anything you can do to get the antenna higher will be beneficial and a reasonable trade off for a bit more coax loss. At some point you'll likely go for an antenna with some gain which will make up for the extra 1db of coax loss.

Marc et all: I think you just boosted the gain on my motivation.

There is a tremendous amount of benefits with Amateur Radio vs. GMRS. First, lets just talk about voice. On GMRS simplex, the absolute very best you can expect from a perfect setup, is going to be about 70 miles. Likely less. That would be mobile or base. With Amateur Radio VHF and UHF, the power limits are 1500 watts with no radiated power restrictions. That means with a little elevation, you are talking coast to coast on the higher portions of VHF and the lower portions of UHF. On the lower portions of VHF, you can talk to Europe, Mediterranean, Northern Africa, etc. Even in my mobile, I can talk to NY from Virginia on VHF simplex. With things other than voice... there is no limit to what you can do beyond no encryption. If you can dream it, you can do it on amateur radio. There is APRS, which provides transceiver location services. There FLDigi which is used for texting and simple messaging. There is WinLink which is a 100% radio-based email service that allows you to email other operators as well as people on the public internet. And much, much more. The benefit of HF and MF is, the ease of global comms as you drop in frequency. I was driving around in my Jeep today on an HF frequency that Tech license holders have access to. I talked to people in 3 different countries on 2 different continents with a simple 100 watt mobile radio and a whip antenna. It's really a lot of fun. As far as a base station goes, I don't use mobile radios for base a station. I have base station radios that I use for VHF, and a VHF/UHF repeater. I talk on VHF on the base for several hours a week, sitting in my executive desk chair. As far as the quality of conversation... I can't really say much about that. I would assume there are plenty of people to talk to without getting into religion, politics, etc. I avoid them like the plague. With regard to if it's worth it... that is a personal choice that each person needs to decide for themselves. I think it is. I held my Tech license for 17+ years before I got my General and had a great time. I also think the GMRS and FRS are great radio service and fill a nice niche.

The main difference between VHF and UHF is that VHF seems to travel better over long distances, while UHF is better at punching through obstacles like walls and trees. This is why the US railroad frequency list and marine frequency list are mostly made up of VHF frequencies. UHF also has better bandwidth occupancy if I recall

Minor disagreement on base rigs. While I think a lot DO use mobile units for a base, there ARE still a few dedicated ham base units out there. https://waycooldigital.com/best-ham-radio-base-stations/ On topic, it depends what you want out of radio. There's a lot more people and options in ham, so more potential variety to converse. You might look into regular nets in your area, or you could take an interest in counting your contacts, distances and such.

There is something called the Open Repeater Initiative or OPI. It uses 462.675 with a CTCSS Tone of 141.3Hz. The frequency was selected by a group of Repeater owners who wanted to create a standard for travelers to be able to have easy access to repeater while on the road, without having to search for a repeater or ask for permission to use it. The 141.3 tone was also selected as the "travel tone" standard. Scanning the frequencies is okay, but you may only talk for a couple of miles. Using open repeaters with "traveler" settings gives you a chance to reach the greatest number of operators for more distance and time.

Richard made a great recommendation above with the Sat phone. That is really the best bet for coms. I didn't think of it because it is very expensive and requires you to have an account. I default to HF radio because that's what I do, its cheap and doesn't require paying for an ongoing service. But, if you have the funds... Sat coms is likely the best solution. The Amateur Radio community considers anything 150 watts and down to be low power. Saying you have or should use a low power radio can be misleading due to that. QRP is Ham lingo that is typically used to abbreviate the point that you are using low power to communicate, but typically 5 watts or less. An affordable example of a radio would be a XIEGU G1M HF radio. Also, kits are available from companies like QRP Labs. You can make your own end-fed wire antenna for a couple of dollars. Or a dipole. There are a ton of video tutorials on YouTube that show you how. For a battery... a small 12.5v lithium ion or gel cell should be fine. they are between 50%-60% lighter than lead acid batteries. The lighter the better.