As @WRYS709 pointed out, it's also sold as the AnyTone AT-779UV. I'm using the AT-778UV which is basically a sibling of the 779. It's not a high dollar radio but it's very nice for the price.
I can't say in your particular case but I had a situation once where, I upgraded chirp, then tried to set duplex to off on some channels, and chirp was filling those cells with a bunch of ???. Within 2 or 3 days, there was a new version of chirp again and after I upgraded chirp the problem went away.
I have no real preference concerning the roger beep but "some people" really get their panties in a wad over it. One morning on my way out of town at about 4:30am I was using a new UV-5R and the roger beep was on. Some guy came on and chewed me out for about 15 minutes. Some people really need to get a life.
I agree with @WRYZ926. A dedicated GMRS antenna will be better but there are others that will work quite well. The Nagoya UT72G is a GMRS antenna but I'm using the UT72 VHF/UHF antenna and it is working just fine.
Welcome @WSAG780 and @WSAH452. GMRS is a great service and I know you will both enjoy it. As @gortex2 you should use type certified radios but don't sweat it. Half or more of the people I talk to on GMRS aren't using type certified radios and no one cares as long as they stick to all the rest of the regs.
Just a little anecdote on commercial radios. A few months ago I was given an old Kenwood TH-75A. I also have a brand new Baofeng UV-5R8W. Last night I was listening to the NOAA Galveston station and decided to check out the difference between these two radios. I still like the Baofeng but WOW! the Kenwood sounded significantly better.
@RogerCarper Repeater channels start at 23 and go from there. 1-22 are simplex channels and will not transmit on repeaters. Also, some GMRS radios will not let you do certain things in VFO mode so make sure you are in Memory/Channel mode. Programming with a computer is almost always much easier than programming directly on the radio.
If your radio has repeater channels, they will already have the offset. Otherwise, you will have to add the offset. And yes, GMRS repeater offset is always +5MHz.
@Sshannon and @Radioguy7268 Not trying to hijack the thread, it's just that this is what caught my attention. I would like to find out more about this. If I need to start a new thread I will gladly do so. I'm just really interested in finding out more about this type of repeater build.
EV's have a long way to go before I feel comfortable buying one. A friend here at work just went through a long ordeal with his. It's brand new and it was in the shop for about 2 weeks.