tweiss3

You could try rotating your setup as much as you can, even 35 degrees might help. That really isn't that much noise, now this is noise:

The thing the FT8900 had that made it desirable is the inclusion of 6m and 10m.

That is ground wave, not NVIS. NVIS at 10m is almost non-existent. You need the right atmospheric conditions.

Free Starbucks/Timmies/Dunkin with every transmission? In all seriousness, why? My wife has found that the radios are helpful in some situations, and she isn't afraid to use them, but she has no interest to talking to anyone else out there.

Hunkered down? Drives me nuts, this isn't unusual snow for Ohio (northern), we get this every few years. Stop for the day, enjoy the fire in the fireplace, watch TV, clear the drive when it's over then go to work. Many people stayed home today though. D4 was quite variable, but that's cause the Cities are responsible for the highway, D3 was clear and dry, ODOT was on it. Radios still work just fine, I did have to clear the snow from the roof the car, the UHF whip disappeared, and the VHF whip was mostly hidden. Still checked into the morning net and listened to the plow crews getting back at it.

In a "field deployment" where you are likely working 10W, I wouldn't worry about the RF on the shield of the coax. In a permeant installation with higher power, yes you should use a common mode choke. I have a CMC from myantennas that I never installed, but I do have 10 clamp on that have greatly reduced the RF on the shield (you could definitely hear it on the surround sound when I was on HF).

This is my setup. Transformer is in the box, wire end goes in the master link, and eyelet goes on the stud with the wing nut. The wire is wound up in the chalk reel, attached to 40' of paracord. I just pull it all out, then toss the chalk reel over a branch and pull. The other side is just paracord, So I could get the other end up too, between two trees. Attach coax to the PL on the box and hook up the radio. It's been very effective in my testing, and worked better than the expensive Budipole.

PSK reporter is awesome, the list of digital modes you can be tracked in is huge. FT8/FT4 is reported very well, some of the other may not be reported in nearly as many places as others. All of these beacons/receivers are voluntary listening, so keep that in mind. You can also try http://websdr.org/ and see if you can actually hear yourself, but that is very limited on locations to "listen".

Could be a number of things. Could be that they want to align more with industry standard to blend in and get the Part 95 certification. Could be that the hardware is identical, but power dives off that far from the ham frequencies because it is out of the design frequencies and starts becoming really inefficient. Could be that the ham version never really put out 10W as claimed.

I've not messed with it, but does Kenwood OVCM act as promiscuous mode? I don't really see a need to use promiscuous mode after trying it at one point, if I'm really curious, I grab the scanner or an SDR, but I do see it as an option in Armada. Also, @PACNWComms, same to the Bridgecom purchase. At one point, they did replace my 878 to shut me up, but the thing still suffers horribly to frontend overload.

Those external speakers are designed to try to get louder than the internal speaker, so they will likely be "too loud", what about using a KES5 external speaker, the clarity improvement would be huge.

The "travelers tone" was something suggested in a magazine many years ago and never completely caught on. IRC, it was back when your GMRS license had to pick 2 frequencies, and you would choose one, and put the "traveler" as your second. You still occasionally find the 141.3 tone used for repeaters, and that tone is generally (not always) considered an open invitation when you come across it, such as the Gatlinburg repeater. As for "band plan", pick what works for your family around your intended operation area and move on. If you show up to an event, and they publish a frequency/channel/tone, use that, but in general, since it's all shared spectrum, operate as normal and if you find overwhelming interference, then move channels. I know some states have tried to make a standard known for "when lost call" frequency and tone choice, but it's based on FRS, and there isn't a massive monitoring network like the coast guard has to cover the entire coastline, so the chances of being in reach of someone else that will recognize the call and are in a position to "help" is very slim. You are better off using 911 text over satellite (now offered on almost any phone produced in the last 18 months), or having other alternative means (Garmin Inreach). To sum it up, use GMRS as best you can (and can train the family members), but don't depend on others infrastructure.

Yea, the Sentinel software makes it way easier. You don't have to understand exactly how the trunked systems work, but you do need to know what you intend to listen to. I need to remember to update the SD card on the Trucks SDS200 now that I think about it.

Anything you can program a single channel to. Make all 16 on the knob the same channel. Even better if there isn't a screen.

If you have to have both bands in a single antenna, I'd choose Larsen NMO2/70B, but you have to have the height available as it is 36" in length. I have used the Larsen NMO150/450/758 as well as the Larsen NMO2/70SH, but I stopped using them for UHF because they are a 1/4 wave 2m antenna which ends up being 3/4 wave for UHF and has way too much up tilt. I now use a dedicated 1/2 wave UHF antenna from PCTel (BMWU4002S) that claims its good for all of UHF, but is good enough for what I need.