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I was checking my credit card statement today and it says I had a $70 credit from the FCC. I got my license in January of this year. Anyone else see something wierd like this? COVID-19 FCC stimulus maybe??

Assuming you have an inexpensive meter designed for CB... Yes, you can use it, it won’t hurt anything. But, no, it won’t give you accurate readings. For GMRS you need an sur meter that operates at UHF frequencies. However, there are meters that operate over a broad range of frequencies. These tend to be more expensive and often require different “slugs” for each frequency range.

I'd like to be able to see the map with __all__ coverage circles __at the same time.__ Should make it much easier to tell where repeater coverage is required!

neither option is a good choice. I started out with a cheap e-bay duplexer (Around $125 if I recall) and it never worked. I was lucky to get two blocks range. Turns out the TX side wasn't being blocked by the duplexer, and instead, the RX side was loaded with desense, causing the repeater to not "See" the incoming traffic. You'r better off researching Band Pass / Band Reject (BP/BR) duplexers and purchasing one when it becomes available within your price range. I spent about $300 for mine and it drastically improved the range of the repeater. Now my only obstacle is height! You can run two antennas however you will need enough vertical separation, about 30-40 feet worth, to avoid desense and damage to the RX radio.

My understanding is that you still need duplexer (or notch filter) on the receiving antenna, or you need to separate antennas by hundreds of feet, or you're risking to burn something in the receiver. Now, cheap ebay duplexer on the receiving side combined with some degree of separation (25 feet, 50 feet?) may be on option? I don't know, just thinking out loud.

Needs more cowbell.

GMRS is a utility service. Typically, users only wish to communicate with others of their group. Amateur radio is a hobby service, where users wish to communicate with everyone. Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk