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I have had six transceivers stacked on top of one another for close to eight years now. My only problem is remembering which mike goes to a specific radio! ?

Your "rule" was for AM broadcast stations, with the exception of KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was licensed as KN9FKA as a novice in 1961 in Chicago IL. When I moved to Los Angeles in 1965, I became WB6IRN.

The first problem was positively identifying the source of the transmissions. I was hearing them on the same channel as a local GMRS repeater I use. I heard references to cleaning, food court etc. With all of the local strip malls, hotels and more within a few miles, many using FRS radios I couldn't ID them. Then one day I heard a reference to a hand cleaning station, then a few seconds later I heard the mall security on the same frequency then on their own frequency. That nailed it. I had the call sign for the mall security frequency. Next stop was the FCC database. I looked up the call sign for the mall's security. Got the FRN number. I was lucky the mall security frequency was registered to the mall and not the mall security company, which is an outside service. Then did a search for ALL licenses under that FRN for the mall. 0002748242 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_Mall I guessed the house cleaning would be registered to the mall. Bingo, there it was. KAB1523 https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=194751 Under the "Admin" tab scroll down to the section "Special Conditions". The exact frequencies are listed there, the pair for the GMRS repeater channel 16, which is where I heard them.

As long as the two are no transmitting at the same time you are OK. Desense is primarily passed through the antenna into the receiver so it's the antennas that are the key players.

I've used my Comet CA-712EFC for the past six years and have been extremely pleased with it. I highly recommend using some 1.5" heat shrink on the connector that fastens the top/bottom sections of the antenna together. That will prevent any water ingress.

I always ask "How much radio do you need?" But I also have an unhealthy obsession with "vehicular repeaters" and wireless speaker-mics. So take this with a grain of salt. But sometimes you really don't need much radio -- range or power -- to achieve your goals. We should really be encouraging small garage repeaters on Open Repeater Initiative configurations; there's a lot of coverage holes, and this would help with that.

Let's hope so. As for Baofengs being "extremely poor quality", I think there are thousands of Boafeng owners that would argue that point. They are not the same quality as the flagship brands, but for the price differential, you would not expect that. However, you do get what you pay for, and sometimes, you are surprised and you get a little more than that. I think Baofengs fall into that category, at least in my experience.