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Have both parties stand on their respective roofs with 5w hand HTs to get a general idea.

I have a pair of Baofeng HTs that identify as BTech MURS-V1s. My wife and I use them for short-range comms when we're at our favorite cabin and I go off hiking myself. We're pretty much assured that absolutely no one will hear us or interfere with our comms because so few people know about MURS. It's supposed to be limited to 2 watts. I'm surprised it isn't more popular. There's actually quite a few decent radios out there, mobiles and HTs. Maybe the 2 watt limitation turns people off, but it's surprising what 2 watts on VHF can do. Not sure if I would run out and buy a $370 Wouxun KG-1000M, but a couple of HTs with mag mount antennas make a pretty nifty car-to-car setup, like CB without all the noise and idiocracy.

I agree with the other responses. There is nothing in the rules that state you must use 5MHz splits. Unusual frequency splits as well as mixed split tones are a great way to keep the trolls away. I'm pretty sure the 5MHz split was borrowed from other popular UHF based services and is considered best practice. Standards help avoid mistakenly causing harmful interference. It also helps companies build standardized hardware for maximum compatibility.

I'm in a fairly flat part of east Texas. With an antenna at 30' I can do about 10-11 miles through the 90' pines to another user who also has an antenna at about 30'. Ive done as much as 75 miles on a 5w and yagi. Its mostly about height. If you can get your family to get antennas ( ED Fong 5dB antennas will be cost effective) mounted at or above the ridge line of the their houses and get some decent cable (LMR or KMR 400) you'll be in business. You could also try some of the 17 ft long 7-9dB dual band antennas. In flat areas higher gain antennas will do better. Also use a RF line of sight tool to check between stations. If you want to get a little further in the weeds, you can use Radio Mobile Online to map you coverage.

If Channels 31+ are opened to additional GMRS Simplex and Repeater channels, but with different Tones, why does that break compliance? That is exactly what Radioddity did with its updated Firmware for its GM-30; I think it was Channels 31-55 for more Repeaters..

You have to use the radioditty uv-5x or G selection in chirp. In chirp you can program any of the channels 31-120 to gmrs frequencies, repeater or otherwise. I have a pair of UV5Gs

The real question here is why the hell would anyone buy from Graingers, even with a commercial account as they are so overpriced that it is cost prohibitive to do so. Like I always tell the Grainger salesman that crawls around our facility is that I can't afford to buy from you even with our discount. Better prices elsewhere. As for the batteries, glad they are taking them back.

I can get 10 miles on my base station on simplex. Roll up jpole at 30ft to another antenna at 30 ft.

It’s not outside the capabilities of GMRS. You shouldn’t need Yagi antennas. I’m no expert on J-poles, but I would expect to be able to communicate ten miles away easily with a decent mobile antenna on a car. If you have the J-poles already try them.

Hmmm, I must have missed that edit window when I looked at the programming software...

@Borage257 is correct. Here is the CHIRP wiki page. Clearly supports this radio. UV-5G (use Radioddity UV-5G) https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

So you probably have about 50 feet of cable running to your antenna, maybe a little more. What kind of cable are you using? What kind of kind of duplexer are you using? What are you using for an antenna? What seems disappointing about your reception. Is it range or clarity or what?

I know for a fact that there are plenty of reviews of these MURS radios especially the ones made by retevis and they're taking off like rockets I'm planning on getting some myself because not only is the band quiet but it's there just in case anybody has an emergency or whatnot compared to the FRS that I really don't care for due to the fact of all the kids on it I really like how the VHF side had been nice and quiet and that's what I've been scanning is those five frequencies haven't heard anyone on it yet but I'm always monitoring it just in case somebody's passing through the area and wants to talk or has an emergency I'm able to respond right away which is great!!!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a great day! Michael... I was on 14.235.

thank you MichaelLAX!!

Although not in the rules it should be followed. Some follow the rules but some do not. My guess is he is trying to keep CCR/Pre defined radios off the repeater.

The rules only specify the allowed repeater input and output frequencies. It says nothing about they have to always be a fixed 5MHz separation but it is the typical case.

I heard a rumor that a GMRS YouTuber will be making a video in the next few weeks showing how "compatible" the Retevis 40W amp is with the RT97 repeater.

Can any of those be remotely controlled using DTMF? Especially #2 - Transit Function?