WRXB215

Steve is right. In that kind of setting, it's all about the obstructions, int this case, buildings. Increasing power doesn't penetrate a building.
Where I live and operate, we have lots of trees. In this case power does come into play. If you can't get above the trees(and I can't) then you have to go through them. When I'm at my house and on a UV-5R8W, if I use medium power, I can't hit my favorite repeater. On high power, I can hit the repeater just fine. When I'm near or on loop 610 with my mobile radio, it doesn't matter how much power I use, I get picket fencing. You just can't punch through buildings with a GMRS radio. You can, however, sometimes bounce off of them.
This is why trying to figure out the fars can only be done by a field test.

@Merky1761 That looks like a very nice project. Congratulations. 👍

Steve is right. In that kind of setting, it's all about the obstructions, int this case, buildings. Increasing power doesn't penetrate a building.
Where I live and operate, we have lots of trees. In this case power does come into play. If you can't get above the trees(and I can't) then you have to go through them. When I'm at my house and on a UV-5R8W, if I use medium power, I can't hit my favorite repeater. On high power, I can hit the repeater just fine. When I'm near or on loop 610 with my mobile radio, it doesn't matter how much power I use, I get picket fencing. You just can't punch through buildings with a GMRS radio. You can, however, sometimes bounce off of them.
This is why trying to figure out the fars can only be done by a field test.

KMZ is common for GPS info.

Steve is right. In that kind of setting, it's all about the obstructions, int this case, buildings. Increasing power doesn't penetrate a building.
Where I live and operate, we have lots of trees. In this case power does come into play. If you can't get above the trees(and I can't) then you have to go through them. When I'm at my house and on a UV-5R8W, if I use medium power, I can't hit my favorite repeater. On high power, I can hit the repeater just fine. When I'm near or on loop 610 with my mobile radio, it doesn't matter how much power I use, I get picket fencing. You just can't punch through buildings with a GMRS radio. You can, however, sometimes bounce off of them.
This is why trying to figure out the fars can only be done by a field test.

On the Nagoya UT-72G, the coil in in the base of the antenna, referred to as a bottom load.  The Tram 1181 has a coil in the middle, referred to as a center load.

From the Guest forum introduction:
Note to Guest Users:  To participate in all Forum threads, you must be registered at the main MyGMRS.com website listed below. In order to register at the main website, you must have a valid FCC issued GMRS license and call sign.  It can sometimes take up to a week for the FCC database to sync with the MyGMRS.com database, so if you try to register at the main website and get a note stating that the license listed in your application is not valid, please wait a couple days and try again.  Once you are registered at the main website, THEN  you can also register here at the forum. Thank you.

I like you as a person and don't want to have you think less of me, and I definitely don't want to spark a political debate, but as a Constitutional Conservative with a few Libertarian leanings, I could not disagree more.  I'll skip the politics part for now, but we haven't even identified if the "kids" are adults in college or not.  I'm a grandpa and my offspring are in their 30's, but I still call them "my kids". LOL  This drastically modifies what is considered acceptable behavior for all parties, if they are grown-ups.

No one ever died from someone's use of a radio that is not in compliance with Part 95e.

Man... hard to answer without more info.  Are you talking about as close to guaranteed as you can get for emergency communications or non-critical recreational?  Are they in college or secondary school?
 
If you are looking for non-critical recreational communications, I would lean away from UHF or even VHF communications.  It's possible, but not likely in a vast majority of the country.  Your most affordable and reliable would be to all get your general class amateur radio license and us HF.  With proper antennas at all locations and adjusting the frequency used based on the time of day, you would be able to talk directly for 12 to 15 hours per day, with blackout periods during and surrounding mid-day.
 
If it needs to be discreet and it just has to work, get a Garmin InReach Mini 2 or InReach Messenger and a Recreation or Expedition plan for each person.

It’s impossible to reliably say. They might go from one block to another or they could go miles between upper floors of two different buildings. 

Totally agree.  
 
But my I add never go to remote areas with out a plan, chains, back up clothes/jackets blankets or sleeping bags, food, water, stove, knowledge….  

Recently, a local Phoenix family drove up to the mountains northeast of Phoenix   several days ago and got caught in a snow storm and they were stranded for several days. The family did survive and made it out unharm.  They were lucky to be found by local Payson Area residents during the snow storm.
While they were stranded, they attempted to call for help using their cell phone but unfortunately, they were in an area of no cell service, which is not unusual in the remote mountain areas of Arizona.
However, the area they were in was well covered by the Diamond Point GMRS Repeater which is linked to other repeaters of the Southwest Community Radio System (SWCRS) that serve the Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, and the eastern mountain communities in Arizona; and throughout the state of New Mexico. If they had a GMRS radio and if they were licensed and knowledgeable about the GMRS repeater system they could have use their GMRS radio to summon for help.
The point is, you can’t always rely on a Cellular Telephone for help, especially in remote areas. So, don’t leave home without your GMRS radio even in the metro areas. You can never plan when a GMRS radio will be the most valuable tool in the time of need.

I had this issue with one of my 771s,  I just put a rubber o ring in between and it doesn't screw in all the way and it's working normally.

I'd suggest programming all 8 repeater channels for a tone of 141.3, the national travel tone and setup scan for all 8 channels. A good majority of public repeaters use this tone and is usually a good way to tell if a repeater is public or not. If you hear something that's not on 141.3 then scan for the tone if you want.

@Knilc It appears that the UV-5RM is the ham version of the UV-5G Plus. This charger should work.

No.  The batteries are different sizes (width and thickness), and the contact plates are in different locations:
Battery on left is for the UV-5G Plus, on the right is the standard capacity battery for the UV-5R.

RT System software can automatically populate repeaters in your radio’s memory based on location (zip code plus radius is just one way).  Chirp has similar features. 
Use the memory banks or zones of many radios to create zones that reflect different locations along your journey and then just switch from bank to bank (or zone to zone) as you travel. 
Alinco’s DMR radio even has “roaming zones” and a built in GPS. 

Doesn't the UV-5G+ use the same battery mold as the classic UV-5R? And if so, wouldn't the desktop cup chargers for the UV-5R will work?

You have a good start to your collection.

Current:
2x Baofeng MP31 1x Baofeng UV-5R GMRS 2x Baofeng UV-5R8W 1x AnyTone AT-778UV 1x Kenwood TH-75A 2x Abbree 771 antennas 2x Abbree 701 antennas 1x Nagoya UT-72 mag mount Added March 29th:
2x Baofeng GM-15 Pro 8W 2x Extra batteries 2x Big Blue 14W USB solar panel

@Lscott show off 😆

This should be a unique experience for sure. My wife and I actually use technology to route ourselves on to the back roads telling the map program to avoid major highways when we want to see somthing different. No advise here but I wish you luck on your trip. 

666 - Mark of the Beast
911 - Terrorist Attack
322 - Skull & Bones Society
111 - Your latest RST report

I’ve attached one of the DMR standards documents I have on file. Starting in section 10 the RF specifications start. That covers permissible frequency errors, slot timing etc. 
Elsewhere the various types and headers are covered. The are about 7 documents for the base DMR protocol. 
 
When reading the document “BS” is read as Base Station and “MS” as Mobile Station.
ETSI TS 102 361-1 V2.5.1.pdf