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As the shop owner, I wanted to follow up on what happened on this scenario. We used Tessco for shipping the CommScope base station antennas rather than taking on inventory of these antennas. They are very large, and the freight is very expensive, so it doesn't make sense to ship them to us, have to store them, then ship them again to the customer. You may be familiar with this as being called "drop shipping" where the item gets shipped directly to the customer. In this customer's case, we received his order and sent the information to our sales rep at Tessco. Days went by, and we never heard confirmation that they received the order and couldn't reach the rep. I tried to find a regional manager to contact, but still couldn't get ahold of anyone. Now being a week later, I escalated to their generic sales and support team, and explained the issue. They replied with the retail cost of the item, and a shipping charge of about $700. If we placed the order, we would have lost about $400 due to the super-high shipping quote and the non-discounted cost of the antenna that we already had negotiated with a sales manager in the past. So unfortunately, we had to cancel the order and refund the customer. I sent a message to him apologizing and explaining the scenario above to show why we couldn't fulfill this order, because of course it looks unprofessional if you don't understand the details of what happened. Needless to say, I pulled all products that we ship from Tessco and informed them I was done with their company do to this colossal issue. Almost a month later, none of the people I reached out to ever contacted me except their main support rep. Never again.

Many people lately are asking to change their myGMRS username from their callsign. Seems that they think this is providing some kind of extra security, but it really isn't. Any site user can easily look up a username to see the associated GMRS callsign or vice versa, so picking a different username provides no extra security. I've been using the PO Box method for many years now, and it's really the best way to go if you're concerned about your home address being visible. However, as others have mentioned, you might want to Google your name first and see all the websites that publish a copy of your public records such as your property records and phone numbers. These websites are much more dangerous, and you should go to each one and request they remove your information. There's usually a "Do Not Sell My Information" link in the footer of the website and you can fill out a form to have the information purged. It'll be available for a while in Google, but eventually it'll be gone (notwithstanding websites or people that already grabbed the information). And if you're worried about the Federal government using any of these tools to "find you", you've been living in a hole. If they really wanted to know, they could know which room of your house you're currently in and all your dirty secrets from over the years. Unless you're living off the grid with no technology, you're very easy to find. So try to be a little more rational.

Referring back to the OP's post from ages past... That "long wire" antenna they rejected would probably be the least obnoxious WRT "the wife". Two masts (or trees if one has them) and some of the thinner wire types would practically vanish. Rig it as an OCFD and one should be able to get three or four usable bands from the single antenna (I'm running an MFJ with thicker wire -- think it was rated for >500W -- with 40, 20, 10, & 6 meter; now all I need to do is actually get on the rigs... Upgraded from Tech to Exta a decade ago and STILL have not done HF voice! PSK31 seems my most used mode). More obnoxious is something like an Alpha Delta (Outpost?) tripod with one of the Outbacker multi-band (mobile) whips mounted. Sure, one has to go out an move a jumper to switch bands, but again -- not tied to one band. I used that with a PerthPlus for 6m and up field day once...

Im definitely not trying to take anything away from your thought... but I'm pretty sure all amateur radios are capable of local communications. I haven't owned a radio that can't. With 100w and FM, I can talk just as clearly and just as far (LOS wise) as a VHF FM radio, with people around me on 10m, 20m, 40m... all the HF bands. The massive advantage you have with VHF isn't the range. That actually hampers you. The advantage comes from the point that I'm pretty sure there isn't a Ham alive that doesn't have a VHF radio. Pure numbers aid the likelihood of finding the right person or persons to talk to in a local emergency.

I'm loving it so far. It is louder and seems a little more clear than the Wouxun. But I've only used it on simplex channels. It plays really well with the Radioditty GM30 handheld and my Baofengs.

All else, set yourself up with an emergency coms radio. Basic know how of use for emergency/shtf/power outages etc. For me, I started with wanting something I could get a hold of my family who is across town about 30 min away on a good day drive. I also off road a fair amount and the radio are a must. So I have gone down the rabbit hole on radios. Also living in Southern California with wide fires, radios came in very handy for those directly effected in the recent wildfire; as their power, cell towers, internet lines all went down (the main run in burned). The amateur side was relaying messages from people in the dead zone, down to people with power, cell service etc; and where relaying messages to family members. And then add earthquakes, we haven't seen a GOOD one in some years to REALLY put the infrastructure to a test for rigidity. I also have the benefit of several GMRS and Amateur repeaters in my area.