I have a metal box with overlap and metal taped edges that my vehicle still detects the fob thru. The chip signal amplifiers are pretty strong. For improved security I took the battery out of the fob and now the chip has to be within a half inch of the start button.
If you use sort by date, you can usually figure out whether you are about to repeat something someone else posted a week earlier. Sort by votes can hide this from you.
I would be stunned if the rioters were not using HT's. Also stunned if three letter people weren't nearby using scanners and recorders and I don't mean Uncle Charlie.
OK, I am hiding until the admin sees this and deletes. You probably forgot that's a prohibited subject here. A bunch of us did and the admin came in and "cleaned things up"
I wouldn't be too afraid of that. Pretty sure you would have to read and understand the manual or find the right YouTube video. Probably as likely as randomly hitting the tone by guessing.
A lot of new radios have automatic tone ID. If both tones are the same, they only need to be within receiving range of the repeater. If the tones are different (or only input), they would have to be within range of someone transmitting to the repeater, but it is automated these days. No longer necessary to just quess.
Will you notice a difference in the antennas? At normal effective GMRS fars, probably not. Going for super extended mountain top to mountain top with antennas out of polarization angle agreement, yes.