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Feedline is another important consideration. If your going to be under 50' good LMR400 with the proper connectors will work well for your application. You want cable to be minimum length needed to get to the antenna and surge arrestor and not use adapters.

Excellent advice! I was going to go that route myself a while back, but found a good deal on the Vertex VX-4207 on eBay. I picked up two of them for $75 each using the "Make Offer" feature. They are both type 90 and 95 FCC accepted, so they can legally be used on GMRS and 70cm ham band. Plenty of memory channels and features such as scan. Got all the repeater channels programmed into memory with every PL tone so I can scan and use repeaters that I normally wouldn't have in memory while traveling. So, if you feel comfortable programming a radio you'll find these great virtually indestructible radios at a bargain price. I've got a total of four of them now, two in the vehicles and made a repeater out of the other two. Here's a link to the eBay seller. He fully tests them before shipping and will send you the results as shown on his IFR 1200S service monitor. I have no relation to seller, just passing on a good deal for anyone that wants one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175863411815?

Consider an Alpha Delta coaxial antenna switch. Pricier than the Chinese knockoffs, but you do not want to scrimp on antenna parts where inferior ruins the experience:

You could if you use an antenna switch to switch between the two radios.

From a GM15Pro inside a house to a 25W mobile with a 1/2wave antenna we got over 36 miles. Its a pretty compromised lip antenna mounted behind my trunk too. This was however from hill to valley across multiple cities. The more impressive to me was the 20mile conversation flat over a few small towns and a large lake. This means my whole family can now talk to each other simplex, very cool GMRS definitely fufilled our needs. Its making me want to drill mount my new car and maybe get a better antenna maybe a 5/8 over 5/8. And we are building antennas now at each house as well. Anyone have any other cool GMRS sucesses?

That could work for us also I will talk to my wheeling buddy when he comes by tonight and see if he is interested. We do plan to go In May to Penn. to wheel so I have to make sure there is no conflicts. Thanks @marcspaz for starting the thread.

I have 50' of Wireman CQ1000 running to the Comet 712EFC and for the DB404, I have 25' of Andrew Heliax Ldf4-50a coupled with about 12' of Andrew Heliax fsj4-50b I'm still experimenting to see what works best, but with the limited gmrs activity in my area, it's tough to get feedback.

Using the 1486 as well mounted to the side of the tower at the 30' level fed with 50' of 1/2" Heliax. I'm getting 5-7 miles usable range, which is good for the terrain I'm on. This covers all my fishing spots on the river using the HT. I would really like more range, but that's not going to happen until I get a better antenna and more height. So, no real complaints as I have realistic expectations for what I'm using.

Motorola does have a package with the XTL5000 & APX series radios where you can have two control heads operating one transceiver. But the Motorola data control cable maximum length is 30 feet. The cheapest would be is wire a speaker into the other room but you still would have to go back to the room with the radio to transmit. Depending on the make and model of his radio, there may be a Vehicular Repeater System (VRS) unit available that he can attached to the radio and enable it when he leaves the room that has the radio and control it with an out-of-band portable radio. eBay has some Pyramid VRS units listed for sale. Essentially, the VRS units function the same and the interface cable is what connects the VRS unit to the radio. You just need to make sure that the VRS unit is out-of-band with the subject radio. And, maybe Pyramid can make the interface cable for him depending on his primary radio make/model and configuration.

This is true. Dual head was available on the Spectra, AstroSpectra, XTL and APX lines of radios. Now a dual head setup for an APX is going to be in the thousands of dollars, so I don't know what your budget is, but it's certainly out of mine. Another option couple of options. First is a tone remote setup where there are remotes that look like a desk phone sitting in different places throughout the house, and areall wired back to a tone remote panel that is connected to your radio. The audio is routed to all the desk sets and you simply lift the receiver and hit the PTT to talk. This stuff is around on ebay and could be used. This is going to be easiest if you use a commercial radio for the interface, they are designed for it. A Motorola CDM is a really good choice here. And if you find the right stuff you can change channels from the remotes. Second option is a Zello / RoIP setup where you connect an interface to your radio and then your phone connects to the interface that is available via WiFi or Internet to the radio gateway. This gives you access most anywhere your phone can connect to the Internet. Another option that is going to be a bit more costly, but has a LOT of additional abilities is CTI Products Radio Pro. This is going to require a Motorola XPR radio and a Radio Pro Gateway to function but you have full control of the radio via either a computer running the 'Dispatch' Software or a smart phone running the app. With this setup you can use the Phone for mobile comms and if traveling, you can load the client on your laptop and have full control for radio use while abroad as long as you have a WiFi connection.

Do you mean 23 amps or watts? If you're pulling only 23 watts, that is only a couple of amps at the most. What is your radio rated for RF Power Output? A radio on standy/idling and/or receiving normally won't exceed an amp and a half. What is your power draw when transmitting and how many RF watts output would that be?

The "Jeep Guy" is correct, there are four You Tube Videos on this subject. Two if them were produced two years ago, one if them a year ago, and one a couple months ago. These videos are very clear in describing the differences between the simplex and repeater channels and what information and steps that are required to program your radio and access a repeater within range of your radio device. The current video also explains where you can obtain the required repeater access information for GMRS repeaters throughout the Country. Here is a link for the current video. https://youtu.be/kEyBqTJIkY4?si=d2zkWAfDKXpxKw3R

I'll share the date with the "financial administrator" of the household and see whats on our calendars.

I have both a Comet 712 EFC and a Commscope DB404 and my repeater is a Motorola GR500 (I also have a few GR1225's) I don't understand why, but the Comet is performing better but either of those would be a good choice. Both so far have held up to some good winds. Some gusts over 50mph

I use a Tram 1486 on my repeater.. Its not very expensive, it has a very low wind-profile and it does not look like some kind of space-antenna on the roof. EDIT: .. and it is very easy to tune for GMRS.

Personally, I would buy a used Motorola XTL2500 or 5000 dash or remote mount radio for a good mobile setup and you could save some money for the programming cable and maybe the software. The Motorola radios will be a lot more durable and will last a lot longer and have some important features that the Chinese radios don't offer.

Enter 462.625 while in VFO mode Hit MENU, then scroll to SFTD Hit MENU, then select + Hit MENU to save Scroll to OFFSET Hit MENU, then enter 005.000 Hit MENU to save If there is a PL tone: MENU then scroll to R-CTCS MENU then select the correct PL tone MENU to save MENU then scroll to T-CTCS MENU then select the correct PL tone MENU to save That should do it.