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I see these statements often on forums (rhetoric or not) and am always curious what motivates the speaker to leave the confines of his (rarely a her) otherwise busy day to NOT answer the question, but yet criticize its asking! I always answer: 1) Some people like or need to be spoon-fed information and concurrently some people get gratification and are well heeled at researching and reporting the information. 2) Technical topics tend to get out-dated with time, so reviewing them with a new question (and response) gets an up-to-date answer; and 3) Posting on forums helps answer the question for others, too. One person's looking up his own answer, helps no one else! But at the end of the day, there is always someone like @UncleYoda who has a need to raise that inquiry and I am happy to fulfill that need with MY answer!

Do you mean where you said this? I linked to a standard-capacity battery for the UV-5r which is USB-C chargeable. If we're being semantically pedantic, you didn't specifically say there were none; you said you didn't know of any, so I provided a link to one. The one I linked to doesn't need to be attached/detached via screws. Use whatever battery works best for you. Fortunately, there are plenty of options.

Yes. get them at least 50 feet apart and try again.

I live in a small desert community with basically zero crime.. Whenever someone does something stupid and gets arrested, which is seldom, the local town makes it sound like we are biggest crime ridden community in the country.. I've lived in L.A. and Sacramento, people need to get a lesson

You would be shocked to see how many people don't know this fact. I can imagine US tourists using their FRS radios while the ship is docked in a foreign port and those frequencies are used by the local fire and police.

Not all Kenwood radios you can program out of the official band split. One notable example is the NX-411. That radio can be used on the Ham 33cm band. The programming software simply won't accept the out of band entry like most of the other KPG radio programming packages for Kenwood. This particular radio required hex editing the code plug. I wrote up the procedure and posted it on another forum. A fellow Ham, a computer professional, used that to write a custom utility to automate the process. Oh, hex editing is your only option if you're stuck with any of the Kenwood "ProTalk" radios. Those allow ONLY a limited selection of discreet frequencies to be selected in the programming software. The hex editing process is similar to the one used on the NX-411 I mentioned. That's why I stay away from the "ProTalk" models no matter how good the deal, price, looks. Not worth the trouble, unless you plan to program it once and never touch it again. How to Hex edit Kenwood code plugs - 20241011.pdf

To throw another fish on the pile, use of personal radios on a ship require the permission of the captain.

Yah, that's @H8SPVMT's fault....

BaofengTech/BTech has really out done themselves with the BF-F8HP Pro IMHO. This radio has everything I've been looking for in an HT, it's easy to program with the BTech software and even lets you add a Custom Start-Up pic. I did a vid of a quick walk around showing some of the features and showing the really awesome programming software too. Anyway, enjoy the vid and thanks for watching. TN.Frank Out!

It can be worse than that. Some cruise lines make money renting out radios to travelers who know their cell phones won't work at sea. Scanning around any of the many cruise ports in Florida leads to much hilarity as one listens to conversations about the buffet specials. Hopefully, the crew knows enough to not match the radio freqs with anything important. I've taken radios on cruises to foreign countries more than once. I ask the officers what freqs are used for such things as port operations, on-board comms, ship-to-ship, etc. and underline the fact that it's RX only, no TX, that I'm interested in. Most officers are cooperative and curious, others have told me to lock it in the safe and not to touch it for the remainder of the trip; apparently it is illegal to just listen to some channels in some places. I always bring the cheapest, POS CCR in the inventory in case it gets confiscated. Of course, one could avoid all this by just scanning on a hacked UV-5R; at least that's what I read on the internet.

Still is mostly Public Safety and some SMRs

Yep, HF or linked repeaters are the only likely solutions, but that's all ham radio.

OP That kind of range is unlikely with GMRS, especially given the physical obstacles highlighted in @amaff’s post, but amateur radio on HF (lower frequencies than VHF and UHF) can probably communicate between Olympia and Puyallup. They also may have linked repeaters for VHF or UHF, which are allowed in amateur radio but not GMRS. Both communities have amateur radio clubs. Consider contacting them for more information: The Olympia Amateur Radio Society: http://olyham.blogspot.com/ Valley Amateur Radio Club: https://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/valley-amateur-radio-club/type:club

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 'probably not'.

GMRS relies on line-of-sight distances like all radios using the VHF and UHF frequencies. The only way to have contact between your two locations is through a SINGLE repeater that both locations can reach. Almost all GMRS repeaters are owned and operated by individuals and their availability and coverage areas vary widely. Most GMRS repeaters also do not have emergency power or if so, it is limited to a few hours of operation. You may want to research amateur repeaters for their coverage areas and their networking methods. Ham clubs in your area can provide the information you need for your decision-making on both GMRS and amateur radio.

I want to thank all of you for you help. I fiddle with my cable bit and tried the Radioddity UV-5G setting and it worked. WSJF239

I have several UV-5r/BF-f8hp batteries that are rechargeable by USB-C, both standard and extended-capacity. Here

Why not just program it the manly way, directly on the keypad?

I’ve also tried it on various Kenwood HT’s. Some you can “push” to operate way out of band, others not so much. For example I have a NX-320 450-520 band spilt radio. The PLL won’t lock below 443 when I tried out a sequence of test frequencies. It does seem, from my experience, the narrower the band spilt the better luck you have running farther outside the official range. If a radio is available, some come in various band spilts so be VERY careful, with the 400-470 band spilt that’s perfect for Ham and GMRS. This seems to be more frequently found with the FM/Digital mode radios. Those are the ones I watch out for on my favorite auction site. Of course you can’t use digital voice on GMRS, at least not yet so you’re stuck with FM, but perfectly legal on the Ham bands.

GMRS frequencies are 462 MHz and 467 MHz so these frequencies I mentioned are withing that range.

Are you still active on St. Charles/575? I have just received my GMRS license and live in ST Peters by 70 & Mid Rivers.

WoW! That says it all…