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If you both on mountain tops. Repeaters in Sacramento area can easily be worked from Emigrant Gap in Sierra Nevada with 40W mobile, and that's about 70 miles as bird flies. In fact, I can hear mt Diablo repeaters (K6POU) way into Sierra, that will be more than 100 miles. Though, never tried to work it from that distance. Certainty not reliable, because as the road turns, you lose line-of-sight and communications. But strategically places fixed station, or long hike to the top of local hill will make comms reliable.

There is a nice GR1225 ready to go for $300 on this forum from a member...Id spend that before buy 2 baofengs, a vox repeater controller and a amplifier... https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/2372-motorola-gr1225-for-sale/

There are grandfathered GMRS business licenses. Listen for an ID.

Don't need a repeater to do what he wants to do. "repeater, and repeater capable radios" is the right answer, just to the wrong question. he clarified a couple of posts down from the top what his actual goal is - which is position reporting.

Look into a Band pass/band reject duplexer. I found that despite terrain, switching from the flatpacks to BP/BR duplexers usually increased range quite a ways.

It will work fine, however you need to remove the raptor on the top under the mount also. Most NMO mounts are desighned for thin metal and adding a "thicker" surface may cause some issues with install. It really depends how thick you sprayed it. On my JK its pretty thin on the exterior parts and my antenna mount if fine.

The short answer no FRS repeating... No on GMRS repeater if your handheld as not set to do offsets for repeater channels. If you want to do your own repeater will be based on the location that will cover your area of need as well on placement of antenna and wattage going out the antenna. Now I like all the features of Motorola T800 BUT what I see they are not Repeater Able... I do not think they do GMRS channels as well, nor can they do the offset +5 that is needs for repeaters. But do reach out to Motorola and ask them if it is repeater capable (I have no clue and others will comment who have this same issue). I have a KG-805G as well and it is a killer on local privately owned repeater... plus the 2 plus miles just on a GMRS channel. I get 30 plus miles in the mountains of WNC as the repeater I have access to is on one of the highest plus well located mountain. So no need for me to put up a repeater as this is great owner and group of folks. So I like and looked at your Motorola T800, they are great for hiking, campground, looking for your wife in the Mall, all within a few miles (I wanted more coverage as we are short on cell coverage). Do you have a repeater in your area... otherwise check out all the chat about setting up your own repeaters in this forum.... (do not spend more then $5-600). O and get another KG-805G and program it with cable and software to your needs like your own repeaters or others channels. Hope this help, the above is IMHO and non techie... Just what this newbie has learned from some of the great mentors on the forum. I'm like a translator for those that have all the technical jargon and I'm just more practical and how do I make it work for my family needs. Jack Edit.... We winter in Fort Myers... I looked up repeaters in your area... https://mygmrs.com/repeater/291 and in Fort Myers https://mygmrs.com/repeater/2391 Turn on your 805G on and listen to channel 15-21 and if you hear morse code CW sound, get an app for your iPhone and pickup call signs for who repeater owner is.

Totally true. Usages cases are different for different people. Cobbled-together repeater with cheap diplexer works wonders in the mountains or in the woods where there is no RF interference. 10 miles - sure possible with tall antenna. Even more if you place your repeater in a good place, up the tall tree or high on the hill. Same system will be deaf and mute in urban or suburban setting.

I've read at least 2 or 3 people in here saying that a cheap cobbled together repeater is useless, just use simplex (what can you do with this that you can't do with FRS), and how you're not going to gain any range, it's way too expensive, and way too technical for most licensees, what are you going to get out of it ... I guess some people just started with a mountain of equipment, truckload of money, and all the know-how! You know what I get out of a cheesy sub thousand dollar repeater setup that I can't get from FRS? Almost 10 miles in any direction reliably to HT's. Oh, and unlike these fancy high dollar commercial setups I keep hearing about "needing" to make a useful repeater? It's not illegal. I also have fun building, and improving, and geeking out on techie things. Are you guys really getting 10+ miles simplex on HT's (on bubble pack FRS radios no less!)? I didn't think so because that would be absolute poppycock! I'm so glad I never listened to guys that kept saying "you can't". I'm not saying everybody should go set up a repeater, but the idea that they're useless unless you spend tens of thousands on a commercial type install (which again - is most likely not legal to begin with) is patently absurd. Not everybody has the same goals, or is in the same situation.

He also sells Prolific-based cables, somewhat cheaper than FTDI. I have one CAT interface from him with Prolific. But his Prolific chips are genuine and do work in Windows without problems.

If you really like the radios, I also recommend getting the factory cable from a dealer, that way it supports the manufacturer so they keep making better than CCR radios. G.

I would recommend you download the service manual for the radio and read through the manufacturers specifications. https://www.qrzcq.com/pub/RADIO_MANUALS/YAESU/YAESU--FT-60-Service-Manual.pdf The first thing that pops up is the frequency stability is only 5PPM. I believe on the GMRS frequencies it needs to be 2.5PPM. The second thing is the narrow band performance. The better radios, typically the commercial radios, have two filters in the receiver section, one narrow band and the other wide band. They are switched in depending on the band width programed. The cheap Chinese radios, and most of the Ham gear from the major manufacturers, save money by using the wide band filter for both. The only thing that gets switch is the max deviation setting and audio gain, increased for narrow band. That means trying to operate with closely spaced stations isn’t going to work so well. While the radio will “work” the poor frequency stability may cause issues with adjacent narrow band channels. All radios will drift in frequency with temperature. The better ones use temperature stabilized reference oscillators to minimize this. The receiver filter issue may result in interference from an adjacent narrow band station’s transmitter.

When looking at equipment the biggest fault I find is the part 90 vs part 95 debate. Esp when part 90 exceeds 95 requirements. There are many business band fire / emergency service radios sitting on shelves due to narrow banding and they make great gmrs equipment. Esp the repeaters. Better and cheaper than part 95 certifications. Glad there is a blind eye on their use. Untill you start causing problems....

Me personally, I think the restrictions of type certified radios for free/public (not business or government) is completely stupid. I feel like most people don't know what is what and can easily end up breaking the rules by mistake. The truth is, I believe that while most ham radios are pretty cheap in quality, they are way better than any new part 95 product on the market today. Many of them are more than capable of performing inside the restrictions of GMRS. People should be allow to use them. That said, if someone is using one for GMRS, I couldn't care less, but I wouldn't go on the internet putting in writing that you are doing it and if someone asks me for advice in the forum, there's going to be a "by the book" response from me.

Yeah, I can see your point. Many of the older Hams hangout on HF. They might have a VHF/UHF radio but likely don’t use it much except on the morning or evening commute. The other times the portable radio gets used at the Ham Radio flea markets then goes home to sit around until the next one. Alas there are those few Hams that just have an elitist attitude and won’t talk to people with a Tech Class license. Sometimes you can tell by the call sign format the license class. Certain formats are reserved for higher license classes. I’ve kept my original Tech call sign just to surprise those that look me up on the FCC database or on QRZ.

Are you sure you weren't hitting the repeater? Hearing a short burst of static (called the squelch tail) after un-keying the transmitter is normal, and a sign you have keyed up the repeater. Unless you have a second radio, with a good (I.e. well designed) receiver, to use as a monitor, all you will get is the squelch tail, and maybe that awful roger beep. However, not all repeaters have squelch tails. So, in that case, you would have no indication as to whether or not you had keyed the repeater. Also, if the repeater has been quiet for over 15 minutes or so, and you key it up, it should ID itself. Though, again, while generaly required, it does not always happen.

Great points! I forgot to mention that most of my VHF DX stuff is upper side band. Its a great mode. The transceivers don't run as hot, have a higher duty cycle and are much more efficient than FM or AM.