gman1971

Hmmmmmm, if you dont like your neighbor??....................,!!

That's my recollection in the Ham world too. If you didn't have a Yaesu, you made a mistake. That was 18-20 years ago. You can't imagine how disappoints I was when both of my FT-8900's broke and the fact that I am on my second FT-857D because the first one had the PA's catch on fire. 
I still have massive RFI on the FT-857D that is installed in the truck. I can't use 60m or 10m because of it. I bench tested the radio with a dummy load and everything was fine, so its RFI due to radiation exposure from the whip. It's driving me nuts... I can't fix it and Yaesu is stumped, too.

Ouch, sorry to hear.
 
Kenwood sounds like a good option then. I would look into Motorola gear too and Icom could be another option. 
 
As for Vertex Standard, they used to be Yaesu before they were acquired by Moto, but Moto took the LMR division Vertex Standard and gave up the Ham radio division, Yaesu, which is not a part of Motorola, nor shares anything with them. Vertex Standard is no more. 
 
G.

Alinco radios are CCRs, made by Anytone... so avoid those. My recommendation would be to get a Vertex Standard VX-5500, the 450-490 MHz model. That radio has a very tight receiver and its a phenomenal radio.
 
G.

This, a-men.
 

I would go with a Vertex VX-2200 and avoid the Baofeng CCR.
 
G.

That is a new level of misrepresentation.... who knew...
 

Welcome!
 
G.

Better take a look at the FCC Certification. Less than 3/4 of a watt certification for GMRS. That's usually a sign that it was throwing off spurs at higher power levels.
 
There's a reason all those CCR's are showing oddball power & emission certifications for Type Acceptance. It's not because of translation errors IMHO.

Yes. Both radios (GMRS & MURS) are available in two versions: basic and professional. The difference is, the professional version allows setting of PL tones from the menu system and PC programming, while the basic version only supports PC programming for PL tones.

HAHA... got to love the nickel tour. 

LMAO, Marc, less polite? not really, still pretty nice response.... and the 5 cent version? What about the nickel version? is a nickel 10 cents?
 
G.
 

I understand that, and that is good, b/c living in this kind of area sucks for radio comms.
 
G.
 

Thank you for the kudos... much appreciated, my friend.

Yep, I can certainly vouch for that. Since putting a super high gain antenna high up, the analyzer was reading a massive noise threshold.... needed 2 cans (cavities) to bring it down to an "acceptable" level.
 
I think the radio range these days, aside from more TX power, is also limited by receiver being overloaded by RF noise; b/c after finding out the noise threshold at my location I was blown away how high it was... so if you don't have a radio that has a tight front end you won't receive signals from very far...
 
Don't sell yourself short, Marc, you are being helpful to others, and nobody knows everything.... point is that sometimes little tidbits like that are the eureka moment that makes it, even for knowledgeable ppl.
 
G.

Yep, I can certainly vouch for that. Since putting a super high gain antenna high up, the analyzer was reading a massive noise threshold.... needed 2 cans (cavities) to bring it down to an "acceptable" level.
 
I think the radio range these days, aside from more TX power, is also limited by receiver being overloaded by RF noise; b/c after finding out the noise threshold at my location I was blown away how high it was... so if you don't have a radio that has a tight front end you won't receive signals from very far...
 
Don't sell yourself short, Marc, you are being helpful to others, and nobody knows everything.... point is that sometimes little tidbits like that are the eureka moment that makes it, even for knowledgeable ppl.
 
G.

Not entirely true.
 
Your transmit coverage will always look better when you model a higher elevation, even at lower power... BUT...   at some point, the repeater is just part of a System, and any repeater system that does not receive as well as it transmits, is mostly a one-way paging transmitter. 
 
If you want the mobile/portable users to talk back in, then having a clear and clean receive frequency matters, and having a well tuned receiver matters. If I stick your receive antenna high in the sky, the good news is that you might hear transmitters 100 miles away. The bad news is, you're going to hear stuff 100 miles away that wasn't part of your system, and if those transmitters interfere with your ability to receive desired transmissions, then you're back to having a deaf System.

Do you have any idea why the FT-857D caught fire? I have one installed in my Toyota Camry and that report of a fire now has me as nervous as a cat trapped on a front porch surrounded by rocking grannies!

With so many good quality used radios from Kenwood, Motorola, Vertex, Icom and others, most Part90 and many Part95 certified, and selling for more-or-less the same price, I don’t really see the point in bothering with The RT76. Also the quality brand radios usually have a huge number of branded and 3rd party accessories available as well: speaker/mics, antennas, batteries, group charging stands, etc.

Just on the off chance that we don't notice your thread, huh?

I'll start the Cheap China Radio (CCR) thread by showing this picture.
 

 
That shows the sensitivity of the receiver combined with the channel rejection filtering in dB, which means, any signal value that is above the dBm curve plot will desense the receiver. You can pretty much extrapolate this curve from the last point where it is computed if no advanced filtering is used, like the SLR8000 repeater, with over 120 dB blocking for off frequency stuff, etc.. but unless you have one of those, most mobile radios don't have that kind of additional filtering. So if you live in an are with a noise floor of -50 dBm like I do, pretty much most CCRs will fall apart and desense so bad you won't hear squat. OTOH, radios like the XPR7550e, with super tight front ends, will effortlessly reach over miles when the CCR is deaf as a rock. This also shows why more sensitivity is not better, in fact, more sensitivity with a poor front end filtering means it will desense even faster.
 
IMO, the graph above should be pretty much definitive as to why the pricing is directly proportional to the selectivity + sensitivity on those devices: with the Motorola SLR800 repeater leading the pack at well over 2 grand, the Vertex EVX-5300, new, was around 600 bucks, the TM-V71a, is around 350 bucks new, and well, the GD77 CCR can be purchased new for 65 dollars on eBay. 
 
And here is a very simple procedure to gauge a CCRs performance and if its even worth the expenditure. 
 
1) First off, If no channel selectivity figures are offered, then move on. "These are not the droids you're looking for."
2) Now get the receiver sensitivity figure, usually measured in uV, but with this nice chart you can convert it to dBm at 50 Ohm, link here: http://www.repeater-builder.com/tech-info/measuring-sensitivity/dbm2uv.pdf
3) Knowing that any signal above the receiver sensitivity threshold (at any frequency) will desense the receiver you add the selectivity in dB at 25 kHz to the receiver sensitivity in dBm, pay attention to signage, the sensitivity is negative dBm. 
4) Repeat the same for 12.5 kHz. Now, some brands show even narrower kHz dB figures offered. You can add it and find out, but that is usually not as important as the real selectivity for further away signals.
5) As a general rule, any signal received within the receiver frequency range (and in the CCRs even further than that) that is stronger than the 25 kHz selectivity value calculated will desense the receiver.
 
Have at it, and please, correct me if I made any mistakes.
 
G.

I thought max legal was 50W? could it be, perhaps, a super high gain antenna? I mean, with 50W and a 9+ dB antenna on a mountain top you'll get pretty darn far... 
 
G.

The performance of the Btech has been quite adequate for my uses.  To the repeater its about five miles through hills and trees.  It is located on the flatland and designed to beam back up here into the hills.  Simplex, I can cover everyone from my location within five miles using the Nagoya 701c antenna.  Again, hills and trees.  Its the Gold Country here in far Northern California  just to give you an ideda of the terrain.  And I am not using the radio for rag chewing.  Others may use GMRS for different purposes and that is fine.
 
Would I recommend the Btech radio to a beginner in GMRS?  Sure.  Maybe its heresy around here, but it is  a radio.  I don't think I would recommend any of their mobiles.  Would I also recommend moving beyond the Btech into part 90/95 equipment like Kenwood, or Icom, etc?  You betcha.  But just like in amateur radio, the CCRs provide an entry.  (nothwithstanding all the non licensed uses, etc).  Used properly, one have find great enjoyment from their Potato radio.  They can talk to ISS, Satellites, as well do APRS and a whole host of other things.  In fact Digital radio is being lead not from D-Star, or Fusion, but DMR and CCRs.  (Think Anytone).
 
I went into my purchase of the Btech knowing full well what they are.  But heck, the Yaesu FT-60 new I had to send back as it would not TX...so tell me again?

It's funny... I do exactly what you are talking about with everyone except for when I talk to my son, regardless of the band.  LOL  
 
Him and I usually plan to talk on a specific frequency at a particular... so unless the frequency is in use at that time, I'll just get on the radio and say "hey buddy, you there?" or, "Hey Nick, you on the air?"  I am not sure why... he is the only person I do that with on both GMRS, 2m, 70cm.

If that is the case, I am sorry.
 
In regards to the Godwin's law, nah, I am cool.  I just like my radios too much sometimes...
 
G.