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Hi all. I'm new here. Posted the other day in some of the forums, but figured I'd make it official here. I thought HTs would be good for keeping in touch with family that live near me. One household is 5000 feet away in the next neighborhood and the other is 2 miles the opposite direction (both straight-line distances). Looks like we're all going to have to upgrade to mobile/base stations with an elevated antenna. I receive on a repeater, but no idea if I could transmit through it (definitely not on the HTs unless there's an unmarked one very close). The maps/DB here don't show any in a decent range. I also thought I'd stop at GMRS, but will be taking the amateur tech license test in January. I think I caught "the bug." I keep the money tree watered and fertilized, but no fruit yet.

Thanks for the detailed write up! I’ll have to go over it in more detail later. Out of all the CCR’s you tested which seems to be the best?

Select, copy, paste. Thanks G!

Sales and marketing. Perhaps they wanted to see if there was a market for a less capable radio at a lower price point. This is a common marketing strategy in many fields of business: start with a broad portfolio of products and remove the slow sellers over time.

First - just to point out, there are some Baofeng (actually BTECH is the brand, but I believe it's the same manufacturer) are true GMRS and approved by the FCC. What most mean by "Baofengs" are the ham radios like the UV-5R and BF-8HP that are not approved by the FCC for GMRS. An FCC-approved GRMS radio is built to be locked into the GRMS frequencies/channels at no more than the wattage limits set by the FCC. This is what is meant by "type-approved." The Baofeng radios are ham/amateur radios that can also use the GRMS frequencies. They are not approved by the FCC for GMRS exactly because of that. Also, the Baofengs have "high" output (4 watts) and a low setting (1 watt). The ones labeled "HP" also can also output 8 watts. So, while they are in the limits for most of the GRMS channels, the lowest it can output is 1 watt which directly violates the 1/2 watt limit for channels 8-14.

Thanks Michael. I had not considered shutting down various other home AC power circuits for my tests. I’ll try it somehow, but it will be difficult (wife probably not going to appreciate me shutting down her internet/satelliteTV/phone/lights just so to test my radio system, but maybe I’ll wait till she’s napping, ha). Some good nuggets there and your hybrid method seems like a sound approach. And thank you also Gman and Admiral: I am 11.2 km (6.95 miles) LOS from the Greater Houston antenna farm. Wow! I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. Here is some info from the internet about the farm: “…eight antenna towers that provide television and FM radio broadcast capabilities for the Greater Houston area, serving 46 television stations (including digital, low power and translator stations), and 23 FM radio stations.” Two of the towers there are about 2000 feet high and so must be some of those “angry RF firebreathing broadcast towers” Gman was talking about. Being only 7 miles away, it’s likely I’m being blitzed as you suggested. This does explain some things, but it also leaves me with a few more questions. Are the static blasts I’m receiving simply bleed-over from other frequencies, and not actually on 462.650?What triggers the blasts? They only seem to occur randomly while someone is modulating, never during standby, and only last for 3-5 seconds, maybe once per minute or two.Why only is my one antenna is being affected? Is it because it is the highest, and is external to my house/roof and thus the best for receiving? The lower, inside the attic mounted antenna is not picking up the blasts even when I swap my primary radio to use it.I didn’t know what intermod was, or a preselector, but after you mentioned it, I Bing’d it and now have an idea. I found THIS article on Intermodulation. It is a long read, and way over my head, but the first section on “Symptoms” helps me understand things better. A preselector could be a solution (albeit not a cheap one). Such is my luck living so close to the fire-breathers (Gman, you've coined a new phrase). And thank you too WRAK968. I did try shutting down and moving my cell phone away from the radio (but not my wife’s phone because she stores it some 25+ feet away from my radios, but perhaps I’ll revisit that). And I did move the Wifi as far away as I could, about 8 feet (side note: this seemed to have helped for a day or so, static burst volume was reduced, but not eliminated, and the test was inconclusive because the higher volume bursts returned the next day….I don’t know what to think of that). I’m not giving up. The fight goes on. Thanks much guys, for all your input. I very much appreciate this myGRMS.com website and you pros who respond to people with issues like mine. Thomas …

I doubt you can change the steps. The radio is probably set to step in the standard 6.25, 12.5 and 25 kHz center channel steps used in LMR.

You can program frequency steps by channel for ex. CH1 446.125 CH2 446.135 use the Zone for Channel Groups makes life easier.