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I understand the observation. However, I think the analogy may be a bit off-base on two counts. 1) Regardless of snob appeal, or whatever, nobody buys: a gun that doesn't shoot straight or blows up in your face; a power mower that is known to remove toes; or model railroad cars that won't stay on the track. The issue there is indeed one of basic utility vs. a more refined and (perhaps) more artistic, even gilded approach. But, low to high, all the options are still expected to deliver the basic functionality. In the case of some CCRs. While they may appear to work to the first time user, they may be actually failing in two important ways: causing interference to other users, and very poor reception making the radios significantly less useful. 2) In the examples you have cited, brand is the issue. That is still somewhat the case in radio. But, it is even more so a question of overall quality. Rather than a differentiation based on brand names, it is based on two broad categories. Inexpensive products based on a very simple "radio on a chip" design (CCRs), versus professional quality products. While different people have their favorites, there is no commonly accepted "you must have" brand. And where one brand seems more popular, Kenwood in the case of GMRS, it is for practical reasons like availability, especially used, access to programming software and general support from a larger user group. When it comes to the discussions on this forum, I have found that rather than snob appeal visa-a-vis price, it is often quality that is the prime consideration. For example, while people may often recommend the "big" names, like Motorola, Kenwood, Icom, Vertex, etc., they also recommend buying that equipment used, where the prices may be very close to the price of new CCR equipment. And for that small price difference, you may get not only much better quality, but also very practical features like expanded memory slots. This seemingly minor feature suddenly becomes critical when, for example, you have 2 rep[eaters you use on the same frequency, but with different access codes. On the typical CCR you can program one, or the other, but not both. With a more capable radio, each can be assigned it's own "channel" with a corresponding screen display. I encourage you to take a little more time looking through the discussions on this site before making up your mind that the suggestions for different radio gear is just snobbism or maybe more practical in nature.

438 - 470, 16 CH AAH50RDC9AA2AN

There are plenty of good used quality brand name HTs on ebay at well under $50. BTW, it depends on which CCR you compare prices with. Right now on Amazon the lowest priced radios, 16 channel, no display, are at least $15. On ebay there are several Motorola P1225s listed starting $19. Though you might have to buy an antenna, battery and charger with the super low priced ones. You can easily get a working, ready to go, P1225 for under $40. OTOH, the P1225 is certified for GMRS. And, as far as I know, none of the really cheap CCRs are GMRS certified. Once you add certification, the CCR prices jump to over $50. And keep in mind, GMRS certification is not just snob appeal. It actually means something. Sure, in some cases it just means the radio has limited front panel programming capabilities. But, in other cases, it means the radio is not complete shit.

Most definitely, Steve. Unfortunately, this is the definition of a back burner project. For example, I've had a 40ft Rohn tower for about 6 years, and its not set up yet But of recent, the project has gained quite a bit of traction, so I doubt this repeater build will take that long to finish....hopefully. I do plan on doing lots of pictures and a detailed reasoning/breakdown on equipment and why I chose what I used. At the very least, I'll throw a bit of eye candy (pics) of what I'm working with in a later thread.

It should do simplex on channels 1 - 7 also! But 8 - 14 will not transmit due to FCC rules!

No it's not a sarcastic comment, just an observation. I've occasionally been guilty of the same thing, blaming lack of filtering or technical short comings on "intermod". I wanted to point out there are more reasons for poor selectivity or interference. Understanding what the underlying nature of the problem may suggest a possible solution or what radio specifications are really important. You soon learn that power isn't everything, and a bad or poor RX'er design can break a radio system. If you can't hear them what's the point? Looking at the typical manufacture's spec's for many radios most never mention the above points, and with analog radios specifically the image rejection. The ARRL lab does a fairly good job of testing radios when they publish a review. You have to dig through the test results for the info. The sad part is they can't test everything out there, and it could be months or even longer before they do a test and review, if ever, on a particular model. Most Ham radios have wide open RX front ends because people want to use them as cheap scanners. I use many of my radios that way, Ham and commercial. While that maybe appealing however that means a compromise in other areas. One reason why the commercial radios mostly perform better in high noise and RF heavy environments is the RX'er design. The radios are generally single band with just enough front end bandwidth to cover the commercial section of either the VHF or UHF band they were designed for and no more. The forum is a place here to trade information. I like to includes links in many of my posts for background that saves a lot of typing. Why repeat the same information when somebody else has already done the job, and likely a better a writer. For my day job I've had to write technical documentation on occasion including for a patent application for a project I worked on in addition to regular design work. People always comment about the crappy manuals that come with most CCR's, well take a crack at writing a better one and publish it. I can tell you writing technical documentation is a tedious, boring and mind numbing work. Now I understand why most engineers hate doing it.

For reference on how bad some are... The Wouxun 805G will set off my smoke detectors if used within 5 feet of them. 50W on 70cm with a Yaesu with an antenna hung next to the detector doesn't do that though.

If FRS works for them and don't want to upgrade to business radios, then that's perfectly OK. I am OK with business use of FRS. Most business users of FRS are casual users of 2-way radio and don't need expensive business radios and the hassle with FCC licensing that goes with it. Given that business use of FRS is 100% legal, it helps fill this niche, sort of like what PMR446 does in Europe. Accommodating casual business users of 2-way radio as FRS does helps keep the Part 90 Industrial/Business (IB) pool frequencies more available for licensed users who really need those frequencies. I recently had a paving crew resurfacing one of the streets next to my house and the flaggers were using FRS. I saw them using FRS and I quickly found them on FRS channel 1 (462.5625). The flaggers were only about 100 feet or so apart and FRS worked fine for them. What was different about them was they behaved themselves and strictly used the radios for what they were meant for. They actually sounded professional, unlike the usual sewer mouth chatter you normally hear from flaggers on FRS.