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Thanks, Wayoverthere, for those suggestions. I have heard good things about the Laird brand and both of the ones you suggested would fit my application. I will look into those, for sure. My question, really, is about buying the NMO magnetic mount, one that comes with cabling and a PL-259 connector to attach to the radio. Very little info on loss in product descriptions on line. Axorlov, I will check out the DXEngineering site. Believe that cabling is better than the typical RG58 that it seems most come with. Thanks. If anyone has further suggestions for a low-loss, NMO mag-mount, I'm definitely still interested in as many suggestions as I can get.

Welcome to common sense... I'm in the software world and have to ask myself and customers what is the common sense as to what you really want. I will confess I have asked the programers for this or that and they come down to common sense. Jack

Hey Mikeebob, You can turn off the blue light while scanning BUT it turns the light off so you can not see anything. Go to menu and on top right side of LED screen you will see 20 "WT-LED". My is on blue like yours. Move it to OFF with up down arrows. Hit menu again to save. Now get your flashlight out to see the screen. How when you hit a signal you will see the other colors you set up... I like the blue as it tells me it is scanning. As OldRadioGuy said does not draw anything in power. Get a bigger battery. I have my 805G scan for two days and had 1/4 power left. Hope that helps. Jack

It's a little more than the one pictured, but some googling found this laird that's a pretty close facsimile of the mxta10, though this one is 1/2 wave, supposedly. https://allterracentral.com/antenex-3db-gain-radio-antenna.html More digging also found this Tram at the antenna farm, for a couple bucks cheaper: https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=191_192_196_214&products_id=1564

I notice my Yeasu FT-7900 ham mobile radio does pretty much the same thing. So maybe it's just "a thing". ;-) Vince

The LED backlight probably draws only 2-5mA. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. I had a blue indicator LED on a piece of production lab equipment that I designed. The LED's keep getting more efficient. People were complaining that it was too bright. We finally turned it down to under 2mA. Vince

That's design flaw. Nothing you, or I can do.

MozartMan, this happen to me over the Christmas holiday and could not get help from BTWR as they where closed... So being an computer guy, I just took the saved CHIRP file I made before making any changes... It fixed it and then reprogramed and all is working... Send me a PM with you email address and I will send you a virgin factory CHIRP config file for you to upload (send) to your 805G... Jack

Really that much RG-58 coax! Depending on which table I consult the losses at 450 MHz, just a bit below the GMRS frequencies, for 100 feet of coax is 11db. That translates into a 98 percent power loss! That coax run is about the next best thing to dummy load. I'll also bet the match is darn near 1:1 too since almost all of the reflected power is wasted in the coax. You could disconnect the antenna end of the cable and still see a near perfect match. I've had people tell me they have used a spool of RG-58 coax with nothing on the end as an effective dummy load on UHF for testing transmitter power, power meter on radio output and the coax spool on the load side of the power meter.

Guy comes to myGMRS.com - asks about a GMRS solution, and the first 2 answers he gets suggest MURS & CB? C'mon folks. This is why people get frustrated with asking for advice online. YES! GMRS is a good solution for what you're looking to do. You might be able to get 1 mile or so out of UHF handheld portables - but a simple GMRS repeater at roof level will probably get you between 2 and 5 miles without even trying. Now - you're going to need to do some reading and educate yourself to a certain level if you want to do this on your own. Otherwise, open up your wallet & call the local two-way radio shop, and purchase their parts & experience. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1402-you-just-got-your-gmrs-license-now-you-want-your-own-repeater/