RCM

Then, at 60 mph, what mic were you using?
 
My truck has 4 mics.
 
6 meter,
11 meter (cb)
2 meter / 70cm
Gmrs

Roger that. GMRS-Chat has more traffic, although it's not restricted to licensed users and doesn't go out on RF. I find that at times the NWI GMRS Repeater channel gets really busy. And it's restricted to licensed users. 

Used-radios has them cheaper, and they will program it for you: https://used-radios.com/products/icom-ic-f221-mobile-radio-series

Actually, it's "Key Top" for the buttons.  And you're correct 880 is Black w/white letters.  863 is white buttons w/black letters.  I would never have noticed.  Good price IMO as well.  Ordered key top and extra mounting bracket (2-vehicle install).
https://www.pacparts.com/part.cfm?sku=881N96%2D6817%2D79
 
Don't find TK-863 in Search but 880 shows up and lists all models the parts fit.  There is a lot of overlap, a good thing.

Agreed.
I just saw a discussion on another forum where most of the participants are 100 percent convinced that a portable "repeater" consisting of a Chinese dual bander in an ammo can with a battery, crossbanding from GMRS to 2 Meters, and a few Chinese dual band HTs to access it, is an awesome setup that can't possibly have any technical problems. And the illegality of it is just a minor technicality and not worth discussing beyond saying nobody will really notice nor care.
 
To those guys a couple of commercial UHF rigs, a simple controller and a pair of antennas with feedlines is way too complicated to even consider.

Access is not bad. It is on the circuit board that is behind the front panel. With the top and bottom covers off, the front panel pops off via a couple of clips. Then a couple of screws hold the board in place. You don't have to disconnect the ribbon cable; just flip the board over.
 
It also gives you a perfect opportunity to pull the keypad out and clean it. Or better yet, replace it with a nice new, white one that is intended for the 863G. It fits, is not expensive and in my opinion, the white keys look better.
 
Software programming is simpler than FPP. FPP is just something that is nice to have, just in case.
I didn't expect that Used Radios would remove the resistor. But if you can get them to enable FPP in software when they program it, if you ever get around to removing the resistor yourself, FPP will then work without any further software programming. In that case you could add a couple of additional channels to your existing 15 channels, without ever needing to connect it to a computer.
 
If you get your ham license and want to program some ham frequencies in your radio, you will definitely need to be able to program it yourself. You will also need to tweak a couple of things in the radio to get it to work properly down in the ham band. It will still work fine on GMRS, too. I've done that on a few of them too, so just hit me up for the info when you need it.

Agreed.
I just saw a discussion on another forum where most of the participants are 100 percent convinced that a portable "repeater" consisting of a Chinese dual bander in an ammo can with a battery, crossbanding from GMRS to 2 Meters, and a few Chinese dual band HTs to access it, is an awesome setup that can't possibly have any technical problems. And the illegality of it is just a minor technicality and not worth discussing beyond saying nobody will really notice nor care.
 
To those guys a couple of commercial UHF rigs, a simple controller and a pair of antennas with feedlines is way too complicated to even consider.

Don't get me started on that! There are some lids around here that I have no clue what their legal callsign is, because I have never heard the first half of it!

Agreed.
I just saw a discussion on another forum where most of the participants are 100 percent convinced that a portable "repeater" consisting of a Chinese dual bander in an ammo can with a battery, crossbanding from GMRS to 2 Meters, and a few Chinese dual band HTs to access it, is an awesome setup that can't possibly have any technical problems. And the illegality of it is just a minor technicality and not worth discussing beyond saying nobody will really notice nor care.
 
To those guys a couple of commercial UHF rigs, a simple controller and a pair of antennas with feedlines is way too complicated to even consider.

I had some appointments at the VA Hospital in Chicago last Friday. When done for the day I drove up to the top deck of the parking garage (8 stories!) and had a ball in 20m phone for about an hour on my FT-857. I tried 10m for a bit but no one was on the air and no one answered any CQ's...

Yes... a repeater to a repeater is usually not a good time. Plus, there is delays in key up times, leading to a word or 3 missing from the start of your transmission.

Oh, not to forget the heating taking place on one's cross-band radio from the 'extended keyup times'...

I've tried many times to participate in nets via cross-band and found it most unsatisfactory. Why one may reasonably ask? Simple, if the hang time on the remote repeater is long, it's difficult to get an word in edgewise! 
 
For some reason a lot of people won't wait for the repeater to drop before keying up, especially during a round of check ins.. Go figure!

This appears to be a photo of the board. Not sure of revisions. I did a quick search so take this with a grain of salt... https://www.qsl.net/yo4hfu/TK880.html
Mods, if this violates TOS, please be gentle and I apologize in advance.

I desolder resistors on all three 880 I have. It is SMD resistor, so cannot be bent. You probably can carefully crush it with wire cutter, but I think, desoldering it safer.

I installed a back rack on my new JT as its a soft top. It has the bracket also. It works OK, but not as good as my F150 with a drilled NMO with same 1/4 wave antenna. I mostly talk simplex and it is noticeably different although both sweeps show the same on a VNA. Its the only solution I have on the JT so it is what it is. I would prefer a roof mount NMO. In regards to the NMO mount get the good sealed mount. I run the Larsen thick mount as the standard NMO wont fit the steel plate. I got mine from antenna farm - https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/larsen-nmokhfcxthk-1161
 
 

Look at how little filtering the RT-22 has. There's all sorts of unpopulated pads on the production model that aren't on the FCC submitted model. I bet those harmonics aren't 50dB down on production models.
 
 
Again, you're in a highly unconventional RF environment, RF power coming from the Candelabra transmitters through a typical UHF passband (370-530 MHz) should be in the ballpark of 0dBm. Most people are around -50dBm. That's a HUGE difference.
 
That said, CCRs aren't meant to be used on fixed antennas; they're designed to be used as portable radios. Most handhelds will show measurable desense on a high-gain base antenna, CCR or not. The typical CCR construction with a wide-open frontend happens to have a lot more desense. In open spaces away from other transmitters, they have a slight advantage due to less filtering loss.
 
They have their place, and that's on-site business use on the hip; can't desense if the strongest transmitter is the repeater you're using. They also work good enough for amateur use that people keep buying them. Few people in reality will cite receive performance as a reason to upgrade from a D878UV or something to a Motorola or Kenwood, it's mostly for audio quality.
 
 
Over here, where the noise floor is high on VHF, I get better coverage on GMRS than MURS, and better 800 MHz Part 90 reception than 460 MHz Part 90 reception. In my experiences with line-of-sight conditions, the higher gain from UHF antennas gives better audio (helps to make up for deep fades, which are briefer on UHF), while in mobile-to-mobile situations with some separation VHF has an advantage in punching through terrain. UHF has much better spot coverage. For mobile-to-mobile operation, ~50W out into a gain antenna on GMRS should give universally better coverage than your Part 95 compliant MURS setup. Portable-to-portable simplex will be much more variable due to terrain. Noise floor is also an important consideration in urban environments, and lower frequencies will have more noise than higher frequencies.

Gosh,
Doesn't anybody have an opinion here.

I had about 15 channels logged on today on Zello...it was raining and cold, so I watched The Office and played on my phone.
 
In 6 hours, I heard pretty much nothing. A check in here or there for the channels that have networked repeaters tied to them, but no real conversations. Anywhere. 
 
Some UK guys on the NR channel 0 now and then...but nothing worth writing home about. 

Many of us here are hams.  We have a ham radio section on this forum: https://forums.mygmrs.com/forum/10-amateur-radio-ham/
 
We will be happy to answer your questions.
 
Some here will be happy to give you advice, even if you DON'T want it. hahaha
 
Seriously, we are here to help.

Just another clarification for those not already in-the-know... TA stands for "Talk Around", which talks "around" the repeater, in other words, simplex on the repeater output frequency.  If you set up channels 15-22 all as +5MHz repeater channels, then pushing the TA button makes them all simplex channels for talking radio-to-radio directly.
 
Set up the 16th channel for whatever repeater you will normally be using that might have a non-standard tone set.

Downs bought the 1225, for substantially less than that and without the cable.
The Kenwwood is better in terms of finding the proper software. Also has more channels.
 
For your use, either is good but the Motorola is more compact and maybe a little simpler to operate. But if you do get a Motorola, it's probably best to pay a shop the $25 or so to program it, or buy it from a shop (used-radios.com for example) that will program it for you.

If you get your ham (not HAM; it's not an acronym) license, those of us who are hams will be happy to offer guidance on setting up your radios accordingly.

I would like to add that it generally takes 2 s-units to hear an appreciable difference in signal strength. So as long as your 1 watt is enough to be heard without dropouts, it will take 16 watts to make any real difference.
If your signal is readable at a 1 watt "low" setting, there is no reason to switch to "high" power as that will only drain your battery faster. The 4 or 5 watt setting only has any relevance in a case where the low setting is strong enough to be heard, but is dropping out.
 
In my experience, there is zero reason to seek out the 40-50 watt "H" version of a particular mobile radio. It really won't do anything noticeably better than the standard 25 watt radio. But it will use more battery power, get hot faster, and find any substandard connections in your wiring faster than the lower power radio. It will also subject you and any bystanders to more RF exposure. And it is more likely to negatively affect the computer and other electronics in your car or home. That's much more prevalent than you might think, too. The manufacturer of your vehicle or home computer couldn't care less about your 2-way radio activities.

The Kenwoods can be programmed for high or low power per channel. The standard low power setting on the 25 watt radios is 5 watts, which makes them legal on channels 1-7.  Channels 8-15 are 0.5 watts max, as you pointed out. The Kenwoods and most other mobiles won't go that low.
 
As for narrow band on 1-7, not only are most blister pack radios narrowband; the Midland Micromobiles that are so popular are also narrowband. Going narrowband on those channels also makes you fully compatible with those.
 
For the 16th channel, I have an idea: if you look at Crescent Valley on the MyGMRS Map, there is an open repeater that uses a different tone than the standard travel tone I suggested earlier. You might consider adding that one as your 16th channel.
 
Lots of sellers on ebay have the Kenwood power cable for less than $10 each. Sometimes much less. That's what I use, because they work well and the radios are already set up for it.  In fact I might start converting some of my ham radios to that system.