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If a receiver requires a tone it is to wake the receiver. The receiver will ignore any signals that do not include the tone. You don't necessarily need to put a tone on your receiver as a receiver with no tone specified will unlock for any signal.

A “fixed station” means dedicated for communications between fixed points and is usually for purposes of telemetry, linking, or control. In the situation you describe, since both stations could be used to communicate with any other GMRS stations for general traffic, both would be base stations, not fixed, and would have no special power limitations other than those that might be specified for the frequency in use.

I have seen where someone wanted to have a station at their home, dedicated to communication only with their mother. They were going to use Yagi antennas aimed at each other to get better range. I would think those would be considered "fixed stations" by definition give n in the beginning of Part 95.

Sorry to disagree Marc. But your own words defeat you. Yes, while GMRS, FRS, MURS, even LMR can be hobbies, that is not the basic nature or history of those services. Just read the descriptions in the respective parts of the FCC regulations. Similarly banking and money management are not hobbies, but there are people who collect coins. Chefs cook for a living, and for others cooking is a hobby. So, I think Jwilkers (nice to see him on here again) pretty much made the case for what GMRS is. However, for Amateur (ham) radio, it is quite different. It is by definition not professional. That does not mean it can’t be useful, and, indeed, some people actually make money from ham radio. Emergency services organizations are not hobbies either. But, at it’s heart, it is a hobby for people interested in all aspects of radio. People forget that radio amateurs not only operate radios, they design and build them, they build antennas, keys, software tools, and all sorts of related paraphernalia. On GMRS, as you point out, we can’t even modify any element of a radio for which it has been certified. On the other hand, there is no such thing as a certified ham radio. You can tinker with them as much, or as little, as you wish. Just to make the point clearer, has anyone been to a GMRSvention? So, maybe it is a small point, but it is also an important one, while some people, including me, may make a hobby of GMRS, that does not mean that GMRS as a radio service is essentially a hobby.

i was wondering that too...i'd been kind of monitoring the post, "best performing" within cost (and maybe size) contraints" would have been my first thought too, but i thought i might be missing something. if height (for performance) is the goal, couldn't that be handled more economically with more mast, rather than trying to get a bigger antenna?

I must have missed the "largest" part of the question. LOL Why do you want the largest antenna? Wouldn't you want to best performing antenna for your needs, regardless of the size?

In the Part 90 world, the wording "Fixed station" refers to an FX1 designation, which most people would consider a Control Station. Usually a mobile in a tray attached to a power supply (often, and wrongly called a base station). That unit is used at a stationary location to communicate with a distant repeater (often using a directional Yagi antenna). Limiting the power of an FX1 was designed to keep people from interfering with distant repeaters on the same frequency pair. In the old 800/900 Mhz SMR world, it was also used in conjunction with the "20 foot rule" which kept the elevation above ground of an FX1's antenna in a reasonable range. I'm not aware of the term "Fixed station" being defined anywhere in the Part 95 rules, but it makes sense to me that power limitations on a repeater's input are designed to limit interference to distant repeaters on the input frequencies. If you're operating on the 462.xxx output frequency (lower side of the pair) - then you're an FB designation, a Fixed Base - or an FB2, which is a repeater.