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For the most part, coiling cable has no affect. There are exceptions in that a tightly coiled cable can act as a chock or a balun and change the impedance to the antenna. But then we are talking TIGHT coils less than 3 inches in diameter. Loose coils, about a foot or so are not a problem and they can even be squished down so the coil is more oval or even egg shaped with no issues. Kinks are a different matter altogether as they affect the impedance of the cable at the point of compression. For an SWR meter, there are a great many choices, with the Surecomm units being fairly decent. Dummy loads are rated in watts as to the amount of power they will handle and are also available from many sources. I have an MFJ unit that will handle up to 300W for about 6 seconds and pretty much laugh off 50 w from the typical mobile. The dummy load takes the place of the antenna so the SWR/power meter goes between the transmitter and the load to measure power. Connect an antenna in place of the dummy load and you can read the amount of power reflected back from an antenna to your radio. The lower amount of reflected power the better.

I have a Kenwood TH-D74A I got because it was tri-band with D-Start being a bonus. I haven't really used D-Star. I picked up a used Kenwood NX-340U, a type 2, at a bargain price on eBay a while back. It does analog and NXDN. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/05_nx240v_340u_K_1117_typeD added.pdf I also had a buddy that gifted me with a surplus mobile NX-820HG, a type 2 model that covers 400 MHz to 470 MHz, good for covering the whole Ham 70cm band. I haven't even turned it on or tried to program that one yet, but I did do a preliminary code plug for it. The spec's claim that the wide band analog mode in not available in the US. The hacked radio programming software I found allows it making the radio more attractive. https://www.ameradio.com/doc/Kenwood_NX-720HG_NX-820HG_brochure.pdf I'm leaning more towards DMR myself since more radios seem available for it at reasonable cost. Yeah most are Chinese, which I think sooner or later will just improve with time. Some of my buddies have DMR radios, one has a Motorola XPR-6550 he got used for around $350. https://www.aircomm.com/downloads/motorola/motorola_xpr6500_specsheet.pdf In that area I have a D878UV dual band from Anytone. I also picked up, again real cheap, a Kenwood TH-D340U which does analog and DMR. https://www.bridgecomsystems.com/pages/anytone-at-d878uvii-plus https://www.space-comm.net/img/pdf/TK-D240_D340.pdf The D878UV radio hardware doesn't seem too bad, the firmware and in particular the radio programming software is buggy. If you look at the firmware releases they seem to come out with a new revision about every 3 months. http://www.wouxun.us/category.php?category_id=93

Here are the antennas. GMRS in the centre rear, VHF/UHF in the centre front, CB (11M) in the left rear by the hinges.

I think CH19 would make the most sense.. Unless you're off-road, then, 16 ...

There has been an issues with repeaters that automatically ID. There have been situations where NOVs were issued for violation of this rule: 95.7 Channel sharing.(a) Channels or channel pairs are available to GMRS systems only on a sharedbasis and will not be assigned for the exclusive use of any licensee. Allstation operators and GMRS system licensees must cooperate in the selectionand use of channels to reduce interference and to make the most effective useof the facilities.A term: "channel camping" was created to refer to those who would send an ID automatically. Supposedly, this would deprive other users use of the frequency. Since an ID is not required, it could constitute a way to show "ownership" of a frequency. Just putting that out there.... No worries here either way.