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I bet it's unfavorable. It's too bad radio forums degenerate to bashing other services. I mean, I guess all forums have that problem, but my take is that there's so much to share, and some folks would rather pee in the punchbowl.

The question was "Why did you choose GMRS", not "Why do you hate amateur radio". Without hating on amateur radio, why did you choose GMRS?

Good luck! Please let us know what they say.

Yes I failed to mention that in original post. I tried turning squelch down each time even down to 1 and wasn't receiving any better. Also tried narrow and wide band with no luck. At this point I have written to the company to see if I can do an exchange. Thank you for all input, just wanted to make sure I covered all bases of attempts.

and... is it possible the squelch is set too high. Again, probably not the problem, but it should be verified.

Since no other radios mentioned, was narrow band/wide band setting verified. I would assume the default is wide band, but one of the radios could have been inadvertently changed. Probably not the issue, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

My friends were using it on the rocket range.

I’m probably a strange example of someone in the radio hobby. So get this,.. I’m a life-long radio hobbiest, who has no interest in being a ham.. I like radio, the science of it, antennas, tinkering, and the ability to posses an end-user only method of relative long distance coms for PRACTICAL purposes. I don’t really care to “make contacts” or chat with randos.. I COULD pass a ham tech exam on any given afternoon with no need to study. But I would have to actually make time and arrangements for doing so. But frankly GMRS is better suited to my needs anyway. GMRS is essentially 70cm ham radio, and the call is good for the family. There’s repeaters and everything . It’s a practical service that allows utility coms and not just “say your call, chat with other ridged ham guys about whatever”. You can actually use GMRS for actual practical coms to the wife for a grocery list, or whatever.. Ive got the big house radio and our cars equipped. It’s a complete domestic radio situation. Our local repeater is 2 miles away and covers 60 miles.. There just isn’t another radio service that works this way..

I didn't choose GMRS, it chose me.

Terrain, foliage, buildings, etc will all play a part in how far you can talk. The guys located in the wide open desert will have more range than most of us in the eastern half of the country. As mentioned, repeaters have better equipment, coax and antennas and are usually high up in the air. The local repeater tower is 21.5 miles away from me. I can make it into the local 2m repeater from my house with any of my hand held radios. The Icom and Explorer QRZ-1 do better than my Baofeng radios. I can get into the GMRS repeater n the same tower but only with my Wouxun KG-935G hand held. The 70cm repeater antenna is also on the same tower and at the same height as the 2m repeater antenna. I can not get into the 70cm repeater at all with any of my hand held radios.

Man that was brazen! I have heard of pirate radio but this takes it to a new level.

From everything I've read, the Andrew Heliax is better if you're running a repeater. For just a GMRS base station radio, either would be fine, with LMR600 being a bit of overkill, unless it's a really long run to the antenna. This is just my opinion and my observations If wanting it for a repeater, this may help a bit https://www.bridgecomsystems.com/blogs/bridgecom-official-blog/how-to-select-feedline-for-a-repeate

There are the ham forums for "some people" but you have to know the secret handshake to get in!

I watched that video and decided not to even try that repair. I work with small N scale digital command control boards, but that is mostly just soldering 28-32 gauge wires to the boards.

That's kinda my point, specs look better on the Heliax. Just trying to figure out why the raves for LMR600.

Or what cable..

Amateur radio licenses and HF radios on 40 meters with a wire antenna is your best option. I use it every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to very reliably chat with folks from Canada to western Washington, distances up to 450 miles.

Yeah 250 miles probably isn't going to be practical. Impossible? no.. I mean if you wanted to pour endless amounts of money getting a couple of high mounted repeater placements on some towers and daisy-chain them, then you could achieve it. But then as you point out, it would run kind of contrary to the whole point of emergency coms. Too many points of possible failure. It sounds like the guy is looking for something more peer-to-peer (simplex). Even in the ham radio side of things, you can't exactly achieve that in a reliable way. There's nothing inherently different about 2m and 70cm ham, just different licensing. And on the HF side, you can talk around the world, but only when the conditions cooperate. You can't pick the landing spots of your signal. So that's kind of out for "emergency coms'. NVIS would be semi-reliable for a 250 mile wide shine down spot, but now you're getting into some pretty elaborate gear, a general license, antenna-ry, and a crowd of "ham guys" that might be annoyed that you're using the band that way and not just calling CQ and making contacts. There's only one remaining option that I can think of. LoRa. Theoretically, if you can run a trail of nodes (and find places that they can live) all along the way maybe about 15-30 miles apart, then you could have something. This is going to be more of a texting back and forth type thing though, but it would be off-grid, reliable, and doable...

That's ebay for ya, people will sell current production items for way more than they cost new. I see it all the time. There must be enough people that fall for that or they wouldn't do it so much. Ya most of the prices I saw were in the 300-400 range.

Here’s a video where a guy diagnoses and then replaces the USB chip.

Hello and welcome! The problem is that in a grid down type of situation repeaters can be down as well because most are powered from the grid, although some have back up batteries or generators maybe solar even. So they can not be relied on for emergency communications planning. VHF and UHF (GMRS is UHF) are basically line of sight communications. If the two antennas can see each other then they can talk. If you can both get enough altitude as in hill top to hill top you may get 100 miles or more. 250 miles? Not likely. For that distance you will need to look to the ham radio world. There is a lot to learn about radio comms for it to be effective in emergencies or just to be competent with it in general. Look for better quality radios for emergency use. They need to be reliable.

Just declare GMRS is the novice class for amateur radio and allow access to 70 Centimeter band Problem solved.....

Great questions and replies!

Your Baofeng and the hypothetical baofeng standing next to the repeater have 6 inch antennas, low quality components, and output only a couple of watts.. The repeater has (probably) a perfectly tuned 10-foot or larger antenna, (probably) very high-end expensive and very sensitive components, and is outputting (probably) upwards of 50 watts.. So not only can the repeater hear everything much better than your $19 Baofeng, but it can squirt it's RF electricities many more fars as well.

I don’t agree. It doesn’t matter who is being targeted; a channel is being blocked. Interference is interference. Broadcasting and playing music are also violations.

Actually, there is. Contact the local ham club, tell them about the interference. See if they will help find the location of the jammer and then turn it in to the FCC.

I use mine for off-roading.. any time I want to "make contacts" and find anonymous men to talk with, I use the Grindr app.