I'm going to say duplexer also, maybe the cables are backwards. Have seen that a couple of times. A celwave flat pack is deigned to fit inside that machine and has the provided jumpers. I have 2 of them as spares.
did this for a customer who didn't want all his men BSing all the time. only foemen or supervisors could talk to them radios 3,4,5 ...... were set up like 2 and supers had 1.
in what sense given the weather where you are I might look into putting the cable in some PVC pipe. As to the cable itself at, 60' 400 will be ok. the next real step up would be 1/2 inch hard line. just my thoughts https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/h358/erscom/off%20grid%20site/IMG_0239_zps7a34owh0.jpg
I would personally spend some time listening to the channel before deciding. I spent days listening in the site where my machine resides before putting it on the air. As to the antenna the 1486 would be the choice as it is a strait up UHF antenna. I'm not a fan of the Tram/Comet antennas but they seem to be popular w/HAM's, then again I live in the LMR/PS world. what is the plan for cable? These are what I'm using. Not cheap and will last 20+ yrs on a site barring physical damage. https://d3ciwvs59ifrt8.cloudfront.net/3d2faca2-b31b-426a-8e30-d282d46d987b/8b99adb0-0d32-46b0-9f42-8c4580c6e3d2.pdf
KB2ZTX, agreed I have several commercial sites that I maintain, only one of which has full back up power and one that has B/U for certain radios on the site. Only one of my three machines has full battery B/U for when the power goes out.
that is what "monitor" is for. most radios have a button for monitoring (open channel) on them. I do run my mobile in monitor most of the time as there are 4 other co channel users on there.
Its called hang time. the difference between the receiver closing and the transmitter unkeying. typically 2-3 seconds is the norm, some are longer or shorter and/or have tones to let you know someone has let go of the key. agreed
I would consider CB more closely related to HAM than GMRS. as was said before for "most" users its a tool. I guess it all depends on why and what brought you to GMRS.