WRXB215

Also, after a battery has been reconditioned and the resulting capacity is below 80%, I replace the battery and no longer use them. Batteries below 80% capacity just don't provide a long duty cycle between charge cycles.

Lithium batteries have a great self life over NiMH and NiCAD batteries. They will keep their charge capacity nearly at full charge for a long time where as NiCAD batteries have one of the worst self discharge rate with NiMH batteries a little better than NiCAD.
Also, NiCAD batteries need to be exercised and conditioned regularly or they will eventually fail with a short service life. NiMH batteries have a little better service than NiCAD but no where near as a Lithium battery. I have a couple Lithium batteries that are approx. 10 years old and they still reconditioned above 90% capacity.
Also, if you put NiCAD and/or NiMH batteries on the shelf or they have been sitting on the shelf before their initial use for long periods of time, you may need to "reform" the battery in order for them to relearn their use and charge duty cycles or they will perform with short use duty cycles between charge cycles.
In otherwords, you need to take care if them and make them happy or they will just be pissed off and not perform as expected.
I learned this from a class that Alexander Battery or was it Multiplier, I don't remember now it was one of them, hosted at an APCO National Convention back in the 90s. Following this practice I feel has given  me great longevity for the batteries whereas I have seen people not performing good maintenance were  constantly replacing batteries prematurely.

Nickel and lithium based batteries should be stored at a 40% charge and not connected to anything. I personally also put tap over the connections, to prevent anything from touching the contacts and shorting or discharging the batteries further 
 
All batteries will eventually discharge to zero if they are in a radio or a charge cradle that isn't on and in a charge state. This damages batteries and can cause the battery to never charge again. Some highend batteries with electronics in them will sleep after they have been out of a radio or charger for some time. Those will appear to be dead, but just need to be reactivated. 
 
Storing batteries in the radio will not only discharge the battery, it could damage the radio. There are issues with corrosion, battery leaks and expansion. 

Most of the Baofeng radios have analog FM transmissions. Digital access codes can be used on analog radios. The type of modulation is different than digital DCS codes. 
Simply go to the DCS menu, select it, and then select the code. 

They do use both digital and analog tones. So, yes, D026 will work on a Baofeng.

That’s what I tried to explain the other day. Xmit frequencies are fixed but it doesn’t matter because a person can still edit the receive frequencies. Just pick a channel with the correct xmit frequency and edit everything else. 

In Ham mode, it only allows transmitting on ham frequencies.  On GMRS mode, you can only transmit on the pre-programed GMRS frequencies. In normal mode, you can transmit on every frequency from 136 MHz to 520 MHz.  That's pretty much it.

I dont know that there is a "right" or "wrong" answer, but if storing anything for a long period (more than several months), I would, and always do, remove the batteries..  
..and, upon reflection, i think that is actually the "right" answer..

That only works to the extent you can keep the tones secret. The weakest link in any security method are the people. Sooner or later someone is going to tell a buddy what the odd tone is so they can talk. Then you’re done.

I didn’t say it was easy. That’s an absolute modifier. I was making a comparison. 
I said it was easier than getting a license for ham radio. 
 
Navigate FCC site + $35 = GMRS 
Navigate FCC site + $35 + Test = Ham
 

@WRYS709 the ham version just might be my next purchase. 😁

They do use both digital and analog tones. So, yes, D026 will work on a Baofeng.

They do use both digital and analog tones. So, yes, D026 will work on a Baofeng.

Haven't dealt with that website lately, have ya?!

Gmrs is super cheap to get into I mean a $20 ht will get many people by once you get out of the city or big mountains.  It’s $35 for a whole family for 10years.  Other than the stupid fcc web site it’s super easy to get into.   Many people see things on the wall and in our future and want some emergency comms.  This fits the bill nicely.   I do talk to many people that are taken in by ads promising 500mile ranges and what not so they buy the radio only to have to clue how to use it.  From what I see ham is growing also just not as fast.  For some gmrs is a gateway drug but others are very happy with gmrs especially with all the repeaters and groups and clubs.  

Not really. The ideas are fairly basic if you don't jump into the theory really deep. Doing some searching on the Internet one can find some sites that do a decent job of explaining the fundamentals. If you get into building and designing antennas a bit more knowledge is required.  

But you also see a lot of them hanging on the user's belt, in pockets and strapped to utility vests. Some even have provisions for sticking the antenna on the speaker microphone. Can't design for every usage condition.

@back4more70 If I did that, my wife would roll her eyes like @OffRoaderX.

My suggestion would be to not make up new ones. Just use the ones that already exist. The whole point is to have clear communications. That is why the phonetic alphabet came into existence in the first place.

Final update:
The 102” whip with the slim jim was too cumbersome to be “portable”, so i moved the so-239 bulk head to the top of the case and i now use a Nagoya NL-R2 instead. Then i widened the hole where the so-239 use to be and installed a water proof cig plug socket for solar charging. This project is now complete.
 

My suggestion would be to not make up new ones. Just use the ones that already exist. The whole point is to have clear communications. That is why the phonetic alphabet came into existence in the first place.

It seems that is the same mindset of the clowns who keep kerchunking the local repeater and demonstrating their many different Roger beeps.

You might want to consider up-sizing the coax to LMR-600 for that long length.

I would be VERY careful taking a two-way radio to most countries. While it's "safer" to take Ham gear you can still run into issues. You get stopped for inspection the custom agent is going to ask a lot of questions about why you have it. Without proper documentation you might end up getting your radio confiscated on the spot. In some countries it's not even legal to "monitor" communications you're not licensed to use! One example is the UK.
https://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtlaws_may04.html
I wouldn't even consider taking a radio to Mexico. The police might think you're a cartel member. Any cartel member seeing your two-way radio might think you're an under cover cop or rival cartel member. Either way you could get shot.

It can take up to a week. 
My belief is that there’s a weekly update of the my GMRS database. I think you’ll be recognized within the next two days.