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GMRS is not ham radio. If you want to use APRS get your ham ticket and enjoy. I for one dont want to listen to data burst all over the GMRS band. We only have limited channels to use now. Adding more to those doesn't help.

I leave mine on for my younger son's FRS HT just so I know it's him. My older son I trust with a GMRS HT and don't use it. They are 6 & 8 so their voices sound very similar, plus it's not going to upset many people only being in FRS toy with very limited range. It doesn't really bother me when people use it though.

Unless it's a repeater itself making the beep where it's being used to pace a conversation, there's no need for it; just turn it off - the person listening knows when you have released the PTT just fine without it. The only use case I think that could be valid is if a recording is being kept for record purposes that could be referred to later, but again, that's not really something you're likely to encounter on GMRS, moreso the public safety side. MDC1200 or FleetSync bursts have a purpose; but its real-life usefulness is pretty limited for GMRS and I see it as more of a novelty. If you consider these as data burst transmissions they're also technically not allowed on the 467 Main Channels (repeaters intputs) per the rules - but that's splitting hairs. I believe most consumer radios that come with the roger beep turned on just have it so that they "sound like the cool radios with the data bursts" but that's just my guess.

I agree with Lscott. It depends. The fewer the connections the better. Also, at UHF frequencies at which GMRS operates at, any adapter you put in line with a SO-239/PL-259 connector is a candidate to skew your numbers. That is absolutely my experience when measuring things with both a VNA and a standard SWR meter. While my radios may have the SO-239 on them, I try to stick with N-connectors for everything else. Adding barrels, right-angles, etc... does not skew the results to the same negative degree as the 239/259 products. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM