RCM

I haven't seen that. I'll definitely look through it. Thank you.
 
Yes. I am in Florida currently. I have homes in Virginia (NOVA) and Florida (St. Petersburg & Ft. Lauderdale). I go back and forth between the two.
 
I have a 5 element beam, which should do the trick.

I had one. I was not a fan and sold it to another member here on this forum.
 
It does have a lot of nice features, but the frequency stability and ability to sustain power levels while transmitting were less than stellar. And the transmit signal is horribly dirty.
 
I also had 3 of their ham 2m/440 radios all break within a couple of weeks of total time.
 
I would have kept it as a cheap solution in my Jeep, since I Offroad all the time. However, with the the doors and roof off, the screen washes out 100%. Oddly, the Ham radios didn't have that problem.

The fact that the MXT400 is narrowband only would put it out of the running for me even if everything else were the same. Even if that were not the case and there was no price difference, the TK880 is so much better than the MXT400 that it really defies comparison. To begin with, the MXT400 has 23 channels according to the advertising I have seen. So what do you do if your travels take you within range of three different 462.600 repeaters?
 
With the TK-880 you could program all of the simplex frequencies all with one PL tone (or a different one for each) and set up the monitor button to bypass the tone when desired. Then program the 8 repeater pairs 29 times, each with a different access tone. Bypass those tones as needed too, and set up one of the buttons as talkaround to get simplex on those frequencies.
 
Basically you can set it up to work with every single repeater you would ever encounter, and have it scan all of them continuously. And that's just one feature it has over the Midland.
Oh and BTW, each of those channels can be set up as wide or narrow, so if one of the repeaters you run across is narrowband (never seen one, but it's possible) you can optimize it for that too.
 
There's much more, but those features make it geometrically better than the Midland in my opinion.

NVIS usually maxes out below 10 MHz and pretty much never reaches into low VHF and never reaches into UHF. If this were not so, satellite communications would be impossible. NVIS occurs at and below the frequency that a radio signal directed straight up is reflected back to earth instead of penetrating the ionosphere.

I don't doubt that you made the 300+ mile contact, but it wasn't NVIS. If the MUF reached UHF, the radiation would fry us all!
Probably tropo ducting.

Have you seen this? http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html
 
I think you're in Florida, right? If so you might want to try shooting along the coast.
ETA: with your directional antenna, that is.

It seems to me the key difference here (between The Midland and Kenwood products) is a case of consumer grade vs. professional grade.
For many users a consumer grade product is actually superior. While they may lack some features, they tend to be easy to use (largely because many features and options have been locked out or removed). On the other hand, professional grade products tend to be more reliable and have fewer operational problems... once they are set up.
 
Setting aside the issues of split PL and lack of wide-band support on the Midland radios, which may not affect most users anyway, it really comes down to a question of how much radio you need vs. how much time and money you are willing to invest.
 
Personally, I prefer Motorola equipment. But, if someone finds Kenwood products difficult to set up and maintain, Motorola is beyond their reach.

Wow! That's awesome!  
I'm still trying to learn this stuff. I know book smart often doesn't match reality, which is why I am glad I have folks like you to talk to.
 
That tests sounds like a brilliant idea. I'll have to keep an eye on the geomagnetic weather and see if I can run that test. With any luck, I learn something in the process. LoL
 
I appreciate the convo with all of you. I'm going to take my General exam on November 8. Hopefully I'll pass and get some new gear.
 
Oh, I almost forgot... do you guys (or gals, if you're out there) know how to repeat tropo ducting? I read that fog and cloud cover helps... but should I be mindful of takeoff angles, etc.? Any advice would be much appreciated.

It has. In fact when I studied for my Extra exam, we still had Morse code requirement. Also when I was using NVIS propagation on 160 Meters with a buried antenna.
In fact, that is a good test: dig a post hole and put a directional UHF antenna (a Yagi for example)in it, pointed straight up. If you can't still get at least 100 miles out of it, it ain't NVIS.
 
In fact, try it on 27 MHz too and report back. Or just take a road trip to the nearest canyon and try 27 MHz there. I can definitely talk out of a canyon on 75 Meters, using NVIS. 10/11 Meters, not so much.

Well, I'm not sure when @RCM last studied for a ham exam, but, I'd be pretty sure the laws of physics haven't changed in the meantime.
 
According to the Wikipedia

NVIS usually maxes out below 10 MHz and pretty much never reaches into low VHF and never reaches into UHF. If this were not so, satellite communications would be impossible. NVIS occurs at and below the frequency that a radio signal directed straight up is reflected back to earth instead of penetrating the ionosphere.

I went ahead and bought several used 3180s. I’ll update if I like them once I get a chance to use them.

I don't doubt that you made the 300+ mile contact, but it wasn't NVIS. If the MUF reached UHF, the radiation would fry us all!
Probably tropo ducting.

Yep. A tenth of the radio (if even that), at easily 3 times the price of a nice TK880. 

I don't doubt that you made the 300+ mile contact, but it wasn't NVIS. If the MUF reached UHF, the radiation would fry us all!
Probably tropo ducting.

I'm not enamored with Baofeng quality control, but the GMRS-V1 is pretty well a plug-and-play solution. If you aren't inclined to try your hand at programming old Part 90/95 commercial/public safety HTs but want a repeater-capable unit, it's hard to do much better.

I was able to hit my clubs's repeater from 92 miles away:
 

 
I was on a peak at 7500' with my TK-380 at 4 watts and stock antenna. The repeater sits at 3800'. I had a clear line of sight and had no issue making contacts, full quieting.
 
Atop a mountain here in town I routinely make simplex contacts on GMRS ~20 miles away.

My longest ground level to ground level simplex contact has been 5.5 miles.  Which is an achievement in my area.  That was ragged edge.
 
My longest simplex contact, regardless of elevation, was 46.6 miles from Strasburg, VA to Second Mountain, mobile to mobile.  It was full quiet. 
 
My longest repeater contact was from a mountain top near Glengary WV to Dumfries VA... 70 miles as the crow flies, but 77 miles for the RF path.  Also full quiet.
 
 
I was on a MXT400 with an MXTA11 antenna. Don't know what the other guys had.
 
 
In the Amateur radio world, I have talked from Flagpole Knob VA (mountain top) to South Houston TX on 446MHz with a homemade 1500 watt amp and a beam antenna.  I would love to try a high-gain beam antenna on GMRS, but I don't think its legal because of the limit on effective radiated power... I may research that a little.

GMRS power output is defined as transmitter output power, not ERP. Go have fun with your beam, or even a beam array.

My family is very close with a Chinese family (most don't speak much English). One family member, a pupil of mine since she was in elementary school up until she completed her masters degree several years ago, told me way back that Baofeng was pronounced "Bow" "Fung". However, the other family members always pick on her for having "a hick accent". Apparently, she is chinese redneck. lol So, take that for what it's worth.

I did a short Youtube video on this.  Got a lot of flak from RR defenders.  They are sponsoring a bunch of off road channels on YouTube now so their re-badged overpriced stuff is getting more and more out there and gaining more supporters who IMO either dont' know any better or are getting free stuff from them anyway. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChdwiXtukR4

Rugged Radios is a complete rip off. I would never buy anything from them, the radios they sell are rebranded CCRs with a ridiculous markup.

For handhelds consider the Kenwood TK3180s for their ease of programming, durability that run on 5 watts with option to switch to  lower power mode. The units themselves are not compact but with the KNB33L lithium batteries, you’ll shed a lot of weight and bulkiness compared to the heavy KNB32 NiMh cells. For programming you will need KPG89D software and a programming cable found on ebay. 
Some TK3180s run on SJ180 software (Like mine did) and won’t work with KPG89D  but people recommend you stick to KPG89D. To enable KPG89D on these units, you need to get the SJ180 software and TK-x180 E&K firmware. (can be found online). 
1st step is to open the radio with SJ180 and enable “Firmware Programing” found in optional features tab. After firmware programming is enabled,make sure COM Port is selected, then you write it to the radio through programing tab in SJ180. 
2nd step is to install the firmware. Close the SJ180 software/program. Open the TKx 180 firmware FPRO file. A grey window will pop-up where you’ll click on folder icon. There you will search for file name ending in HEX something like “TK2180K_ REL22_1 HEX.” Hold down the S Key on the radio and power it on while holding the S key, this will enable programing mode on the radio.Then click on COM Port 3 in the FPRO file and Write the selected HEX file to the radio. 
3rd step is to open KPG89D and program your radio.   (I forgot the step of holding the S Key on radio and powering the radio to enable programing mode.) 

Legally? All any user of your license is required to do is to identify as WRDV917. Whether you are nearby or in the other side of the country or with or without cell coverage is not relevant.
 
As @BoxCar suggested, you can add additional identification information, like unit number x or mobile x, or base, your name, or whatever you wish. But, that information is not required and actually has no official significance.
 
Look at it this way. The FCC only wants to know what license a given station is operating under. In other words, your call sign. Any other identification is for your own purposes.
 
However, the group you joined may have their own internal rules or standards and while not legally binding, might cause you problems with the group. You might want to ask someone if they have a set standard.

Well, older equipment might be the way, or part 90 cheapo radios (Not sure if the Baofeng 777 is part 90 cert anymore)

I use Kenwood 380's. You can usually find them on Ebay. I think I got mine for around 30 per radio, (3 radios, 2 chargers) Software is available for free on hamfiles. Simple programming and strong radios.