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I'm waiting for something to compile so I tried it. 9V batteries are spicier.

Neat! Probably a bit of both, plus a dash of luck.

IIRC both are primarily line of sight so performance should be roughly the same, especially with HTs. You can take advantage of troposheric ducting with 11m/CB for the occasional long distance connection (whereas UHF just punches through the atmosphere) but you can't rely on that for regular communications.

The average age of GMRS users in my household is 24.5. The average age of ham radio users in my household is 42. Your math checks out. I would like to get my 7 year old into amateur radio to bring that average age down.

Flipping between ham and gmrs (and unlocked) modes shouldn't break anything. One of my two GMRS-mode radios is a ham model, and my ham radio is a GMRS model. (Why? Because I wasn't paying attention when I was setting modes and I'm too lazy to swap antennas/modes, that's why) Two of my four radios (one ham, one GMRS) are warranty replacements, and I have a fourth radio that's dead somewhere. All of them read 0W on an SWR meter but could still TX to a nearby (i.e. in the same room) radio after they died. Assuming you have all your settings correct (allowed frequency/channel, correct offsets, etc.) and still can't talk or it shows 0W, send it back or contact TIDRadio support and have them ship you a replacement. Or get a different radio. I think I'm done buying H3s after this and will be switching brands when my remaining radios start dying.

TIDRadio doesn't seem to publish release notes for their firmware - I think they just announce it on their FB page and hope you find it. Kind of frustrating. IIRC the latest firmware just fixes some issues with the airband frequencies so unless you really like listening to local airport traffic, it's not necessary (and it's not super exciting anyway).

Hopefully someone who's done POTA activations can chime in with the software side of things. I know of pota.app which lets you spot activators (report their location and frequency so others can try to contact them) but AFAIK logging is done with whatever software you want as long as it outputs ADIF. I've used kiwisdr to listen in on activations. Sounds fun.

I don't have a POTA rig, but there seems to be two purposes: 1. You get to operate your mobile radio away from a permanent location so if you're into emergency or off-the-grid communication, this is gamified practice. 2. Playing with radios outside is more fun than playing with radios inside.* *weather permitting

This is what I've been using trying to figure out how much loss I'm going to deal with running a line out to my backyard: KV5R Coax Loss Calculator 144mhz with 25' of RG8X is probably going to be about a ~21% loss. 450mhz drops down to 38% loss. I actually don't know of anything short of like LMR-400 that doesn't have high loss with VHF/UHF, but now you're getting into stuff that's almost three bucks a foot. Edit: I have no idea where my mag mount base went, but I'm pretty sure it uses a 16' RG8X line and even with the loss, like 4W at 450mhz out on my porch is WAY better than 5W in this RF dead spot I've created in my office with all the monitors, computers, and metal peg boards. You may not notice the loss with a short run.

I use a Signal Stick which is only 2m/70cm but it glows in the dark (though they say it will "probably work" on GMRS/MURS). I bought it because the Signal Stick guys run hamstudy.org and I wanted to support them. Also it glows in the dark, which amuses me.

Not to worry, I have a plan on how to handle this.

I had been addressing my three kids as "you jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers", which was fun until my 7 year old asked what a midnight toker was. Didn't think my cunning plan all the way through. I just said "it's from a song" and played Steve Miller Band until he quit asking questions.

I probably would have participated in the jabber jawing on the local repeater if they talked about smoking meat instead of soup.

walkietalkiesoftware.com should have a link to download the "programming tools" for your radio which contains the firmware and upgrade tool, programming software, and he manual. That's probably "the software" they're talking about. But the download for the H3 Plus (both GMRS and ham) are getting flagged by the Windows virus scanner as having a trojan so I'm not going to go poking around in there. (The non-plus H3 download didn't get picked up by the scanner.) Like @OffRoaderX, it's probably not worth it. They don't publish release notes but I saw somewhere the last H3 (non-plus) firmware fixed something with the airband frequencies that I never use. Looks like the H3 Plus 1.0.29 firmware might be the latest, which lets you edit channel names from the radio and fixed the VFO scan mode to loop correctly. I doubt you'd use VFO Scan mode on a GMRS radio and editing channel names is a nice to have, but not a critical update.

"Well, you see, little Timmy, sometimes a man buys a radio so he can meet other men and exchange signal reports and talk about antennas." "What about talking to friends and family?" "Yeah yeah, they do that too, but first, let's talk about mag mounts and ground planes..."