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It's always worth it to find a good (acceptable) expendable radio. But even a good radio is cheaper than an iPhone 11.

I would have to check my notes about the JK. I won't run a radio if I have anything higher than a 1.5:1. On the Gladiator, it floats between 1.1 and 1.2 depending on weather. It was somewhat directional. On the blind side, off the back, the simplex range was just less than if I am driving toward the other station. The SWR was fine and I could work repeaters 20+ miles away with no issues. It's my go-to antenna when I'm going 4-wheeling.

The main problem with most CCRs is not the transmitter (though that too can be an issue, but usually to traffic on other frequencies), it is in the receiver. Most, but not all CCRs, are created equally (i.e. poorly). But there are exceptions.

Ditch the Midland antenna and cable. They are not good... and when they are good, its not for long. The part of the window/roof frame you are talking about is called an A Pillar. The small UHF antennas need to be at least 8"-10" away from the A Pillar. The cowl cover is fine for an HF Firestick for the CB, but its too close for the GMRS antenna. You are very close to radio damage territory with those SWR readings. I wouldn't use it until its fixed. No more than 2.0:1. 1.5:1 or better would be ideal. Your power reading on 8 is low because the SWR is bad. The lower the SWR, the more the forward power increases. If you have a 1.1 or 1.2 to 1 SWR, it would be close to 13.5 watts (assuming the PA's a putting out the advertised 15w).

If you are going to be doing your own work, I would recommend getting a quality SWR meter. I have found that many of the inexpensive meters are only accurate for a very small amount of the "advertised" frequency range, and the higher the SWR, the less accurate they are. I started off with a MXTA26 on all 3 vehicles. Turned out to be a terrible idea. on the 467 MHz channels, the SWR was way too high. I ended up using some small Browning and Tram antennas that are good from 450 MHz to 470 MHz. One of my trucks has a Comet CSB-790A. It is three 5/8 waves long, in phase at 62 inches long. Its rated at 7.7dBi gain and cost about $100. I get a near perfect SWR of 1.1:1 on all GMRS channels. Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine, mobile to mobile about 9 miles apart, using just 2 watts. It work fantastic... but its a lot of antenna. Most people don't like the size, because its so tall, but I love it.

If it is possible to easily generate an email list from the database, it would be fairly straight forward to send out an email asking that all listings be updated or confirmed once or twice a year or face automatic deletion. I don't think that is unnecessarily harsh or unrealistic. It's a free listing so expecting the lister to keep it up to date is not an unreasonable condition. If there's no email address associated with the listing, I see no reason not to delete it. Or at the very least, flag the listing as unreliable. If the word around the net is that MyGMRS is becoming unreliable, then it's time for some action.