GreggInFL

Agreed. Some philosophical consistency would boost the FCC's credibility, also. On marine VHF one can TX on channels reserved for port operations, intership safety, intership commercial, international distress, state controlled, U.S. government (non-USCG), USCG, bridge-to-bridge intership in the lower Mississippi river only, U.S. EPA, noncommercial and a dozen other uses with a 25W mobile without having anything -- no testing, no license, no nuthin'. How much damage can one do on GMRS frequencies? A lot less than the above, so why require a license?

I'm new to this also and went through the same progression, i.e. HT to mobile, with the expectation of eventually adding a base station -- maybe a repeater at some point. All this would, obviously, require lots of equipment and a modest stack of bucks, especially with more than one vehicle in the household. I've satisfied all of my use cases and spent a total of less than $150. How? By making everything portable. I have a 25W mobile radio and a small 3dB mag mount antenna. The radio plugs in to the cars' cigarette lighters so nothing is hard wired. I can move it between the cars and bring it inside to use as a base station. As I type it's sitting behind me in a closet atop a pizza pan hitting a repeater that's about 30 miles away. Hell, I could use it on my fiberglass boat but I don't want to explain why I have a pizza pan on the bow. Is this top-notch gear? Nope, but it works very well for me. I'll eventually upgrade (probably the antenna), but for now everything is working everywhere, and I haven't drilled a single hole. Oops, forgot the new inside power supply, so let's call it $200 total.

I love this bar.

^Come to my place sometime and show me how your HT will go 50 miles. I'll buy the beer.

Update: This is on every Thursday at 1900 hrs. 700 is the strongest local repeater -- good for ~35 miles.

We used them recently with three RVs on a road trip. Sure beats trying to set up a conference call or a group text.

Hey, how'd you know I'm in my underwear?

^ Unleashed.

I've seen this in other industries, more than once. Someone invents the jet engine, but it gets rejected because it doesn't meet the propeller spec; the lightbulb doesn't meet the kerosene lamp spec, blah, blah, blah. I spent a couple decades working with a team moving our structural titanium alloy aerospace components to the medical implant field, which had been using stainless steel. I eventually concluded that FDA approval is the stamp of obsolescence.

^ Good to know. Thanks.

Let's talk about a tilting/tipping base for a mast. Any recommendations?

Here is the USCG page for channel/freq assignments: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/us-vhf-channel-information. Even though I'm just a recreational boater, it's still fun to monitor some of these channels, especially when overseas.

A fixed-mount marine radio with a big antenna mounted on the top (third?) deck at max power (25W IIRC) transmits many farz when the only obstacle is the earth's curvature. Another good reference for those new to the subject: https://www.boatingworld.com/articles/boating/vhf-radio-your-ultimate-guide/

For those of you remotely interested in why a cell phone may not be enough when on the water: https://www.bostonwhaler.com/navigator-blog/fishing/vhf-cell-phone.html?utm_content=&emid=$emid&mkt_tok=MTYyLUtVRi01MjkAAAGafbxL2QyGoJPbJBjrLcJ-lbHanNwDmjZT6SoK0grQSvstFrCTqPzXllh_ap9aNedhZReMJcOrEMsdI4P_voDV8RNoOJSC3lpPcxIkS3oKBJHUcA

Except for the Jeep trails, I thought he was talking about The Villages, FL.