Hello everyone. I am brand new to the GMRS world. I received license a few days ago and just got a pair of Baofeng UV-5XP's. Needless to say I was quite overwhelmed by how sophisticated these radio's are for the price. Manually programming them is quite a bear. I made the mistake of not having a programmable download cable to download the free frequencies from CHIRP. I just ordered one from Amazon to help with programming. Anyway, I am impressed with the 3,000 mAh battery, FM radio, and the myraid of adjustments of this radio. I stumbled across an interesting HAM group discussion on 145.430 with folks chiming in from Grass Valley, Auburn, Cool and I can hear them all loud and clear here in North Highlands (about 40 miles away). Hopefully, I can find a group of like minded GRMS folks in the general Sacramento area as well that I can communicate with.