amaff

yeah but that's a pretty different function than a PA, where you're talking into the mic and the same unit is outputting the audio, but louder.

Bingo.

Nope. A lot of them do because it *can* decrease confusion in new users. What's required is that the radio enforce the rules. The rules don't say anything about what memory slot a frequency sits in. My "nice" GMRS radios (nice for me...), KG-905Gs, will force the radio to low power if you put, say, GMRS Channel 8 in memory slot 20, or allow high power and frequency offset for repeaters channels if you put them in, say, memory slot 8, where a low power interstitial channel would normally go. Lazily programmed (from the factory, I mean) radios force things rigidly in place because it's easier than enforcing the rules more broadly.

now if the antenna happens to be shaped like a Cat D9, it might do something to the hill... But other than that, no.

Of course. Depending on the trailer and what's in it, it could be a REALLY bad day. It'd be worse if it takes your headliner or half your dashboard with it, depending on where the radio's mounted and how the cable's run. I'm just saying that, in my opinion, the juice, what of it there may be, just ain't worth the squeeze of dealing with a remote antenna.

I once had a professor in a technical writing course ask the class "do you know why all your user manual and instruction manuals for the things you buy are by and large all terrible? It's because the person they get to work with the technical writers to put together the manuals is the guy the shop foreman or engineering manager can most stand to do without for a couple weeks. And do you know who THAT is? Literally their worst and / or dumbest employee." Which is a long way of saying "no, I don't think getting stupid people to write regulations would actually be an improvement" Should they be written in plain language instead of legalese and spell things out? Oh absolutely.

A quick google shows a handful of instances of interference if you're sitting right on 433 (either the TPMS light on the dash coming on when you transmit, or occasional noise when receiving. At least 1 seems to have fixed it by moving the antenna. https://kq4afy.xyz/blog/2022/12/tpms-uhf-interference/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/1l732o2/today_i_learned/

Short answer: yes. I don't know what brand you're looking at, but the OEM giant in this space is Continental and: https://fccid.io/KR5TIS-09DL

duplicate...the forum wigged out

Theoretically? Sure. In practice? I'd be surprised if it was more than a fractional difference all the way at the edge of the performance envelope.

That janky cable is usually built into the trailer, and to a connector built into the tow hitch, with a breakaway connection should stuff go wrong. Not something you're stringing across the bed of a truck to a trailer. I guess you can test the failure load of the SO-239 connector on the back of your radio if things ever go really wrong lol

It also has a Special Feature, so you've got that going for you!

There's enough stuff that can go wrong with towing as it is. I don't know if I'd want to add a janky cable between the tow rig and an antenna on the trailer for the fractional theoretical gain you might get over just having it on the truck which, I'd assume, is where the radio also already is.

Kinda same, honestly. Unless I'm testing out a new radio or install, I basically never talk on the radio to talk on the radio. We're at the track or strung out along a hiking trail or in a group of vehicles driving somewhere and we need to talk amongst our group, not really to anyone else. Other people on frequency means we're moving to our secondary channel haha

As has been said, you may get SOME additional punch through trees and what not at 20W over 5W, but the biggest thing is putting the antenna outside of the big metal box. The nice thing about it though is that with the antenna on the outside, not only does it improve your transmit range, but you'll be able to hear them from further away than you otherwise would as well, with a handheld inside the car without an external antenna. All that said, if staying in touch is super important to the group....if a large separation happens, have a plan for correcting that / regrouping.

Really? Even at club level road racing (SCCA / NASA) I've seen a mix of mobile and H/Ts. Once you get up into your IMSA / WEC / World Challenge, even the lower tiers, it's basically all mobiles. I haven't spent enough time crawling around circle track cars to tell you one way or another in that world.

Goddamn it, it sure as hell does. A quick look at the amazon link made it look like it was broadcast AM/FM radio, not VHF AM / FM.

dang, if that had air band receive it'd do basically everything I wanted

Those aren't "repeater" tones. Sometimes there's uses for tones in simplex comms. In fact, if I'm in a group traveling together, we almost always have tones in the radios so we're not hearing anyone else who may be making noise on the radio. But yes, your normal channels 15-22 will be simplex on most GMRS radios, and then 23-30 will be your repeater channels, then you'll be able to program in some 'DIY' channels (usually repeaters, is the idea) in the additional space.

That's a gorgeous strawman you've built there lol No one (and definitely not in the post you quoted) was talking about public safety frequencies.

Really? Under *ANY* condition? Because I can think of a couple carve outs in the rules... The scare-mongering and disinformation is getting a bit silly.

The AR-5RM is, near as I can tell, an unlocked UV-5G Plus (or, really, the other way around, but you get it). A little bigger / more expensive than the UV-5R / 5G, but has some neat features over those (that 1 touch frequency / tone scan is nice, USB-C charger port on the battery, etc)

There's a pretty big difference between "cannot" and "should not," period.

#4 on this post covers manually entering a repeater channel from the face of the radio: The one thing it doesn't say is that once you go to put in your tones you'll have to hit the MON button to cycle between OFF / CTS / DTS options