AdmiralCochrane

The answer to that is the no license, no test, no fee MURS and FRS

I agree, THE standard phonetic alphabet is THE standard and there need not be a 'second standard' Just the same, often a simple nmeonic is helpful. A ham near me has a call sign ending in NRS - he tells people he is "not real smart"

Don't give away the secret handshake. John has a long mustache.

GMRS to GMRS. GMRS to ham frequencies is not permitted.

Or it could be grandfathered business transmissions.

I guess I have purchased better antennas than you. Maybe you got out of spec antennas.

Just buy a GMRS license, already has no test. Same for FRS. Leave ham alone, there are services that meet your no test suggestion.

If you are only worried about one direction, a mobile antenna outside on that side of the building would work well, for better range in all directions, a mobile mounted at the peak of the roof would work. If FRS is working, you may have success with GMRS even with cheap coax to an antenna at the peak of the roof.

But it should be mounted higher than the roof of the building with the metal roof.

The most useful repeaters are located on hilltops, tall buildings or towers of some sort (water towers, antenna towers etc). A 10 watt transmitter mounted where it overlooks the surounding area is more useful than a 50 watt on a single story building with trees nearby.

But this ignores possible improved take off angle.

I found some almost free LMR 600. All I had to do was buy a crimper and ends. About 75' of length will let me push my antenna another 10 ft higher than it is now.

If your physical location is high on a hill, there may be no difference. Line of sight rules over height. Likewise to the station(s) you are communicating with, if they are hilltop both antennas would be line of sight to the other station.

Thanks. It's the TYT clone. I've been too busy to program all that stuff into my Yeasu. I had the TYT set up in my shack which I am moving to a different room. The Yeasu will take the TYT's place in my shack when all is moved. With the right settings on the Uconnect, it toggles between the aux source and normal radio just by plugging or unplugging the aux jack. You can leave it plugged in and switch by pushing several buttons, but no buttons is easier (and makes XYL happy). I don't have any trouble hearing the radio's speaker under the passenger's seat, but I am going to double up and add an aux speaker under the driver's seat and jump the ⅛" internal speaker disconnect so the radio's speaker stays on. That way I'll be able to hear the radio better with it unplugged from the Jeep radio so I can listen to the Sirius music and monitor the ham radio at the same time. My love of puns makes me think that one of the oldest puns in western culture is Sirius and Procion. Many people know Sirius is Orion's hunting dog, the famous Dog Star of August, giving us the "dog days of summer". The star Procion appears a few weeks before Sirius and in mythology is the offspring of Sirius. Literally, in Greek, Procion means "preceeds dog". What preceeds every dog? A puppy! and Procion, "the puppy" preceeds us seeing Sirius, "the dog". Hi Hi !

I'm happy with this install. The remote head mount fits in the bottom front console box with no fasteners. Radio is mounted under the passenger's seat. No wires are showing anywhere except what you see here and the coax from the bumper to the antenna. Antenna coax and direct power from battery thru floor drain grommet. Antenna on spare tire mount. Remote speaker wire plugs into Uconnect radio aux input ⅛" socket and functions thru the Uconnect to the Jeep's factory speakers that can BOOM the audio. Ran the coax along the frame and behind the passenger's rear tire skirt to get to the bumper. The radio is programmed to recieve tons of stuff outside the ham bands for monitoring: CB, GMRS/FRS, marine, air, business vhf, and TV alternate sound.

On the other hand, isn't this a case of simplex users not expecting repeater operation even though they were on the simplex/repeater frequency? kidphc is correct, proper understanding of best operating procedures calls for listening FIRST, but GMRS is a no test, buy your license and transmit service. In this case, all the parties knew 10 times more than the average GMRS licensee; consider that EVERYONE on this forum is probably 5 times more knowledgable than the average GMRS licensee, even those who have come here and asked only a single question. Separating the repeater frequencies would be the only solution but I don't know if that would even be possible since GMRS is already democracized, there would be older repeater operators that would never switch to the new frequencies.

To learn what (radio) traffic exists in your neighborhood. It is common courtesy not to interrupt other's transmissions. If you know when and on what frequency there is traffic you can avoid being a problem. One may also learn about nets that otherwise are not published where you could be a welcome addition. Another thing that one may learn is whether there are grandfathered commercial users in your neighborhood on frequencies you will want to avoid ...

no

Simply the physics of the length of the wire and whether it is connected in a loop. No other magic.

The EMP from a lightning strike in my yard damaged some stuff at my house a few years ago. I had all my antennae disconnected, but the EMP was received on the wires between my power supply and my HF radio - a conductive loop. The end of the loop was the incoming power filter board on my HF radio, everything on that board was fried, but to be clear: the power was picked up and entered the radio via the wires between the radio and the power supply. Since repairing the radio, I now not only disconnect the antennae when I am not using the radio, I also disconnect the power supply. Anderson Power Pole plugs plugged into a Rig Runner power strip. Another piece of equipment that was damaged and caused a dead short on one circuit breaker circuit was an old florescent light ballast. Before the strike the ballast was weak and I had the tubes out of the fixture, but the magnetic pulse was enough to short it dead. As in the Carrington Event, loops collect the pulse. The longer the loop, the more energy can be collected. Shorter loops just won't collect as much energy, it's one of the laws of physics.

I am reasonably happy with my 578

I've installed my radio in my soft top JK, but got the wrong spare tire antenna mount also when I stretched out my coax, it wasn't long enough. The antenna is one that I had success with on another vehicle, so I'm excited to be setting up the Jeep.

There are countries through the world where listening to other than official government transmissions is illegal; thankfully, the US is not one of them. You may listen to anything out there if you are not a spy. Technically "transmit" once you get your license. "Broadcast" is something different.

There is another problem with using AI as a reference ... it has been known to lie.

I agree MD gun laws are stupid, but not sure if your description or understanding of gun laws in MD is accurate. Since you travel out of state often, the mag restriction basically is nothing to you. You may bring them in from other states, you just cannot buy them in MD. The MD AR barrel profile restriction only applies to .223 & 5.56, other calibers can legally have any profile; if that much of a barrel profile difference neuters an AR for you, I'm not sure how you are able to carry a rifle that shoots 6.5 Grendel