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Nice! Think I'll go this route for now and it's easy enough to throw in the car without hassle. And the story of my life, as I'm reading this forum I'm already foreseeing that I want to try out something "more" than the Midland. The "what's in your car" thread has me looking at the Kenwood 8180. Such a newb...

OK. I think we all agree you dont like GMRS, dont like the rules of GMRS and dont like the FCC. Simple solution go find another service to use.

Just remember none of the radios mentioned other than the Midland is ready out of the box. Thats the biggest issue for some folks. Not everyone is able to program a unit or even understands why they need to. I had a guy show up on a saearch a few years back. He had a CCR handheld and mobile and neither was on our SAR channels. When i asked him how it was programmed the answer was "it came programmed".... after the incident i worked with him and it was all out of the box channels. Personally I prefer LMR radios and for myself have all APX in my primary vehicles as i use them for public safety also. But for folks like my parents the midland was the best option. Eventually I will upgrade them one vehicle at a time with something commercial. I just installed the ICOM F221 at my guest house (winter home for them) with a base antenna so he doesn't need to leave an HT on all the time this winter.

so i was poking at some of these tonight, and stumbled onto the Anytone AT-588, which looks to be the same hardware as the luiton, TYT, and retevis. availability seems sparse, though. https://www.amazon.com/AnyTone-400-490-Mobile-Radio-Scrambler/dp/B01CBA136G

That was my biggest reasoning for the mag mount, as my truck lives outside. I have a convenient gap in the door seal the wire can tuck behind, and with so much less driving this year, the antenna gets tucked behind the seat on the passenger side. Radio itself is tucked behind the seat in the center, and I just pull it over and plug it into the 12v outlet. No noticeable noise from that source, but it is an always on, vs on with ignition. No real mount either, the slide mount fits really well onto an ice scraper I have jammed between the seats, and holds it at a good angle too. (99% of the time in the truck, I'm solo anyway)

Diamond and Comet are the two top brands I use for both base and mobile communications. You won't go wrong with the Comet 712EFC or the Diamond x300. They are both designed to perform well on the top end of the band. I have the x50 and the x200 and have posted real-world SWR and performance data from my system in the past. The GP-1 doesn't have the gain that the 712 and the x300 do. Its 6db compared to 9db. If you life in an area that doesn't have a lot of tall hills or mountains, I would go with the higher gain antennas.

Maybe I am the only one, but I am confused about the purpose of this ongoing rant. Complaints on an online forum are not going to change anything. If you want change, file a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC. Then get people to support your petition. But, to the points you raise. First, about GMRS radios themselves: Some of your facts are wrong or off target, there is no need for a -5 MHz (not KHz) offset on a GMRS radio. There are only 8 repeater input frequencies defined and those are all 5MHz higher than the 8 defined repeater input frequencies. And, the number of internal memory locations (aka "channels) that a given user needs is very difficult to determine. Probably more than 22, but 180? Zello? Zello works just fine without a GMRS radio at all. But, Zello is an Internet (IP) based app, which means anything that connects to Zello needs an Internet connection. But, you also suggest GMRS should work when away from any cellular infrastructure. So, how is your Zello equipped GMRS radio supposed to connect to Zello when you are in the middle of nowhere? And you complaint about morse code, I really don't know what that is about? We live in a free market economic system. Manufacturers are free to offer products they feel will meet customer and investor needs. You have a choice. And, if you don't like the certified GMRS products you can choose from, there are plenty of other options, from super-cheap CCRs to super-high end Part-90 commercial equipment. Technical questions aside, your major complaint seems to be about licensing fees. Here again I think you are off base. Many services, especially commercial, marine, aviation, LMR, broadcast, common carrier, cellular, etc. have licensing fees and they are often quite expensive. At $7 a year, GMRS is cheap by comparison. Yes, it is more than Amateur. But, Amateur radio is also considered a public service, with a long history and International agreements. And, what difference does it make who you pay a licensing fee to the FCC, the ARRL, a local radio club or whatever? But, even here you are not current. There is now a proposal in the FCC to lower GMRS licensing fees to $50 and add a fee for Amateur radio. The reason? It appears federal law requires fees be set to recover costs. The GMRS fee was bringing in too much money, ham radio was bringing in nothing. You also object to being taxed on your GMRS radio, but have no issue with the FCC requiring a cell phone company to offer a GMRS repeater service on every tower for free. When you consider the equipment and installation costs, plus administration and maintenance costs, are you willing to pay for that every month when Verizon and AT&T raise your bill to cover their costs? There is no free lunch. Ok, you obviously feel strongly about something, otherwise you wouldn't have started this topic and posted 7 follow-up comments. But, it is really hard to understand just what it is you are complaining about and what you think should be done about it. Can you succinctly state the top 5 high level problems you see with GMRS today, the reasons you think those are problems, and 5 proposed solutions.