BoxCar

I would follow the ham repeater protocol and just state <call sign> is monitoring, anyone out there?

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You're in for it now. Constant questions, debate and the pursuit of ever newer and better radios!

As people keep saying, it isn't the power that's key, it's the antennas. All increased power means is you have a stronger signal in the areas you already cover. UHF is line-of-sight so the "fix" is to get the antennas where they can "see" each other. Raising an antenna 6 feet gives you about a 2 mile increase in coverage area and that is much more important than pushing power into the same smaller area you currently have. This isn't CB (or low band VHF) that will somewhat follow the terrain, this is radio waves that reach the horizon and continue on into the ether.

Look for a local radio dealer. Google will be your friend here.

I believe what the note about an external GPS is it means an external antenna connected to the tablet.

The other point in your post - Increased power does not mean increased range with UHF frequencies.

RCA is another option. RCA Mobile Radios (radiodepot.com) BRM300D_Spec-sheet_print-1.pdf

It sounds as if the final power amplifier stage was blown. By any chance could the radio have been keyed up without an antenna or dummy load attached?

Make certain you have no tones set on your receive frequency.

Antennas are radio agnostic. As long as the impedance is right and the connectors match antennas work. So yes, the Midland antenna will work with almost any radio.

Actually, the person requesting to transfer the license only needs to be eligible to hold the license. It does not need to be business to business for 90.35 frequencies. The same is true for Part 90.20 licenses as well. The transferee must be eligible under the rule to hold a public safety class license. The classes of individuals are listed but include veterinarians and disabled persons.

What model/brand of HTs are you trying to program?

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. The ongoing debate is which is the more common.

It's probably safe to leave it in the charger, however, Lion batteries don't discharge themselves quickly like the older NiCad batteries did. I've charged up radios and let them sit for a couple of months on the shelf to find they retain 90% of their charge or greater.

The usable frequency range of the transmitter covers the Part 90 spectrum.

The manual that comes with your radio should tell you what the power draw is during transmit. Round this value up to the nearest multiple of 5 and you should be good. I personally use the Mean Well (Meanwell) brand of power supplies that can be found on Amazon as well.

Maybe start knocking on doors and asking if you could rent their attic for an antenna location. Offer them say $5 per month for the space and a little electricity to power the connected antenna and radio.

Why not help your friend get his Tech license? Then you could use the existing repeaters to stay in touch.

There is no rule about giving an existing repeater priority but there is a rule within Part 15 that states a station must avoid causing interference. That rule (admonition) is repeated in many other parts of the regulation. Simply translated into practical usage is if someone is already there, you need to go somewhere else. With only 5 channels, it can be difficult to find an unused pair, but it is the responsibility of the new station to either negotiate a sharing agreement with the incumbent or forego establishing their site.

If there are no repeaters in your area then the 5 frequencies are available. If there is a repeater operating, you are required to give that user priority for the channel and either select another channel or reach agreement to operate so not to cause interference to the existing user. The rule reads you must avoid causing interference but accept any interference from another station operating on the same frequency. Using tones or codes on a channel does not stop interference as you are both using the same channel.

Being blunt, there are no "custom channels" on GMRS or FRS radios. A channel can be "customized" by adding tones for receipt and transmission of messages between users. Adding tones means you are requiring a user to have the same tone to use the channel in the same manner as the others but does not guarantee any type of privacy or exclusive access.

I'll add my welcome as well. WRCM737, K4BJW

Almost any external speaker would work, the issue being cords between the radio and the speaker. I bought this little peaker for when I operate away from my home. AYL Mini Speaker System, Portable Plug in Speaker with 3.5mm Aux Audio Input, External Speaker for Laptop Computer, MP3 Player, iPhone, iPad, Cell Phone (Black) (amazon.com) It is amplified so its volume is independent of the radio volume meaning I can leave the radio's level set or normal use and increase or decrease the volume at the external speaker as needed.

+1 on this. Watts is output power and has no bearing (mostly) on receiving ability. The key for both is antenna height and the higher the better. Second to antenna height is the antenna itself. Antennas have a gain measurement which translates to the amount the signal at the antenna is amplified by the antenna design both outgoing and incoming. There are two scales commonly used, the dBi scale and the dBd scale. The dbi scale is how the antenna output compares to an imaginary antenna while the dBd scale is measured against real conditions. The dBi scale can be converted to dBd by subtracting 2.1 from the dBi figure.