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The quick answer: Yes, but not easily. Setting up a repeater takes more than just two radios and a couple wires. It's going to be much easier to use the existing repeater. Retivis sells a small repeater for around $400 that only requires an antenna and power.

The FT-60 can be programmed using CHIRP so you should be able to set the tones through the program.

The thing that would infuriate the complainer even more would have been to stop responding by turning your receiver off. The point would have been made, "I'm not listening to you rant about something I have no control over." It puts the adage "never argue with an idiot as they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience" to the forefront.

As you stated in a later post your planned use is mobile and that brings up another set of questions. GMRS isn't like CB where there are a lot of units in use along the highways so don't expect help with traffic congestion or directions. People on GMRS seem to primarily use the radios for communication between family members and close neighbors. The use of GMRS is shifting to where more units are installed in vehicles but it's going to be several years before GMRS begins to challenge CB for car-to-car conversations and assistance. With that in mind, you also need to look at what you want to accomplish with a radio. If it's finding people to chat with, then your better choice would be to get an amateur license at this time. An amateur Technician license gives you access to two frequency bands, VHF and UHF. GMRS is UHF. As amateur radio has been around for over 100 years there are thousands of repeaters available all around the nation and even millions around the world. People on amateur radio are those that like nothing better than talking to others also known as rag chewing. Entry level VHF/UHF radios are in the same price range as some of the better GMRS radios. I started with a little 25W unit that was around $125. An antenna and mount set me back another $50 or so and a power supply to use it in the house was another $30. That's about the same price you are going to put into your radio station but limited to the GMRS/FRS frequencies. Yes, the requirements for an amateur license are greater but nothing onerous. The Technician level license for V/UHF takes about 40 hours of study and passing a 35-question test on some basic radio knowledge and the rules. The biggest difference in the licenses is an amateur license is for the individual only where your GMRS license covers your entire family. The biggest difference in making contacts is I'm not limited to just those in an area around me. With my ham transmitter I lack only contacts in Africa from working all continents. I can still talk on the GMRS/FRS frequencies using my GMRS transmitter as I'm licensed in both services. But to get back to your questions, if you are going to have the unit in just a vehicle, a 25W radio will meet all your needs. These can be powered from the cigarette lighter socket so just add a magnetic mount antenna and you are set. While not according to the rules, you can use some dual band radios for both amateur and FRS/GMRS communications. That's not a recommendation to do that, but just letting you know it is possible with some radios. Adding an external power supply, you can bring your radio inside and make contact using an external antenna. You can also upgrade to a higher power radio going up to the 50W limit. I would stick with an analog or FM only radio unless you go into the amateur ranks where you may want to try a digital radio and connect to others through the Internet. There is a freeware software package called Chirp that can program any frequencies you need into a great many radios but Midland isn't a brand that's covered. You can see the large number of different radios at Home - CHIRP (danplanet.com). Chirp is an easy to use program and there are other sites that have tutorials on using the software as well. As far as brands go, four that would meet your needs are Alinco, BaoFeng (and BTECH), TYT and Wouxun. There are a great many others, but these 4 offer a wide variety and are generally reliable performers.

BTECH's duty cycle is around 20%. That's12 minutes of transmitting spread over an hour. YMMV

That's something the FCC can't just wave a magic rule change at. Frequency allotments and sharing between countries are set in treaties and only the Senate can change the treaty which allows the FCC to change the rule.

There is no standard channel for travel. Some are advocating to establish one. I would like to suggest we use two.an odd numbered channel for N/S travel and an even numbered one for E/W. It would be easy to remember, just match the channel to the last digit of the route you are on.

Oh, gremlin snuck in and turned the magic smoke generator on. That's not good 'cuz it takes the whoopies away.

Nope. They shifted to 17 at the Idaho or Oregon orders. Most of the ones newly into the region usually got the channel change at their first truck stop or at a scale.

CB channel 19 wasn't used nationwide as a travel channel. The Pacific Northwest used Channel 17. That area included all of Washington state, Oregon and most of Idaho. Channel 19 was primarily used for rag chews and sideband use.

It's entirely possible the repeater is transmitting a tone but your receiver by not requiring one will hear anything transmitted on the frequency.

The fees vary by coordinator. The best I can tell you is to go to the FCC website and look up the web address of all the coordinators for B/ILT and check their posted prices. There is no restriction on who can hold a business license other than what the FCC requires for any applicant. Licenses under Part 90.20 are restricted to specific parties but 90.35 doesn't have those.

Set the Tone Mode to Tone, not TSQL and remove the receive tone. You won't hear the repeater unless it is using a transmit tone.

The coordinators use proprietary software that is available for license. The suite we used carried a $1500 a year license fee. The software was sophisticated enough that it could coordinate a trunked system using multiple sites and frequencies at the same time. Our advantage was we did the coordinations in house rather than farming them out to local, volunteer frequency advisors which often took months to complete. We processed over 95% of our applications within 3 days.

Tones are NOT required on any channel or device. Ask whoever gave you that tidbit to show where it is required in the rules.

It isn't that your signal can't go beyond the limit on your license and connect to a unit outside the assigned radius as much as your use of that frequency is not "protected" from another user being coordinated in an adjacent area. Typically, the coordinators assign a 32 km (20 mile) protection area, but they also issue city, county and state-wide areas of operation. The different frequency coordinators have different periods in which they review and approve or object to another coordinator's application. Commercial B/ILT coordinators must file their objection within 24 hours while public safety coordinators have 5 days to review a proposed coordination. The difference in review times is due to the nature of the coordinations. B/ILT coordinators work on the premise that all frequencies are shared while the public safety coordinators assign exclusive use to a frequency.

Side mounting antennas is done for several reasons including those already stated. One of the more common reasons is to restrict the radiation pattern from the antenna. The tower is used to cancel a portion of the radiation pattern often to prevent interference to other stations on the same frequency. This often happens with public safety and commercial installations as another user just a few miles away can be on an adjacent channel and their application was approved for coordination with the non-interference requirement.

The 200 foot measurement is supposed to include any antennas that extend above the tower. The regulation states the total height of the structure which, by definition, will include antennas as they are part of the "structure." There have been a few reports of tower owners being cited but they have only been after complaints have been filed. From the few I remember the complaint was filed by pilots that do ag spraying,

VHF and UHF communications are short range and communications may not leave the area of concern. Granted, that is a key issue as it allows communications between people within the area but will have little to no impact for summoning aid or relaying information outside the area. Each has their place but I wouldn't count on VHF or UHF for summoning aid more than 1 or 2 miles away.

Or mobile hotspot.

67.0 is the correct value.

Ace Hardware stocks sheet steel in different sizes and thicknesses. I use a 2 foot x 2 foot piece for both GMRS and 2 meter ham work with a 50W radio. Exposure to RF is an issue you need to guard against. There are calculators available on the web that allow you to find the safe distances for both you as the operator and an observer.

Switching power supplies have to meet FCC requirements for noise so the blanket statement that switching power supplies are major noise generators is mostly false. The early switching supplies did not have to be designed with the filtering now required so they were a problem but more in the frequency ranges below those used for GMRS frequencies. You have a better than 99% chance that any switching supply having an FCC label will power your radios with no noise.

The FAA has specifications for tower lighting and the maximum height does include the antenna if it extends above the tower structure. The best repeaters are commercial or public safety grade units purposely built as repeaters. These are not "just two radios connected together" but units built for constant transmit/receive use. Typical radios spend most of their life receiving and about 10 to 20% of their life transmitting. The transmitter is the part that draws the most power and generates the heat that causes failure. Repeaters on the other hand are built to spend 50 to 100% of the time transmitting. Your best bet for getting a good repeater system is from the used market. Check the usual sources like E-Bay, local two-way radio dealers and do an Internet search for used radio dealers.

USB voltage is 5VDC while the radio runs on 7.4VDC so the USB will not directly charge the radio or run it.