gortex2

Yeah,   If you take your mouse and hover over his name a box will pop up.  Bottom right is a button 'ignore'.  Just click that as many others have.
It's a pretty common practice.  He seems to be the self appointed court jester or something.  It seems he likes to keep his post count higher than anyone else around here by nitpicking every little thing he can find.  Other than that, he's a legend in his own mind with all things GMRS and even has a YouTube Channel to pass on his wicked smartness about hobby radio. 
Oh, and for some reason no one understands, and by his own admission, he is NOT a river in Italy that Romans can freely cross.  Never really understood that one.  But he openly states that in his YouTube persona.
Welcome to the board.
 

Looks like someone is going to get an honorary guest VIP invitation to the ignore user list😀

No. GMRS is not about that. Thats what Ham is for. 

Cut off 30' of cable ? 
 

No. GMRS is not about that. Thats what Ham is for. 

I have repeaters that sit dormant 6 months out of the year. Is there a reason it should be talking ? Mine are all closed so unless I'm on it or one of my friends its quiet. 

Cut off 30' of cable ? 
 

I'd rather have TWO good well engineered working radios than a sack full of junk handies. 

Easy!  It's because the FCC says so!

I would not set it to none on any XE radio. The entire reason its there is to have a certified battery on the radio. I ran into a customer who changed this on all the fire radios so they could use cheap batteries. A radio was sent in for water damage and was not repaired as it was using non IDLH accessories. 

In the LMR world we use the antenna that was designed for the radio. Its all part of the design. Changing it may result in loss of performance. Just my experience. 
 

Also they could be using simplex with a tone. I do that alot with friends. We dont use the repeater but use a PL or DPL. In that case we dont here you calling. 
 

I like the FAQ idea. Also I like the idea that many other forums have of locking threads so they don't get revived months or years later.

Many items pointed out above are accurate. I'll add my experience. One of my GMRS repeaters is at a great location. Prior to being a GMRS repeater it was used by a public safety agency on public safety frequencies. The agency had portable coverage over a large area. When it was transferred to our SAR team all I did was change frequency and retune the cavities on the combiner. The old frequency was not far from the GMRS channel I chose. We used it with our LMR radios with no issues. I had other ask about using it and over time finally opened the repeater. One month later all I had was complaints that it didn't work at all or horrible receive reports. Every complaint I went and tested and never saw the issues that were reported on my LMR gear. Many of the complaints were from the same locations the agency used this repeater. Digging in more all the users complaining were using CCR stuff. Those using LMR gear had no issues. In the end I just closed it and removed it from all listings. This is just my experience with true LMR gear and not cheap stuff. As reference when that repeater went into the site it was in the $15,000 range and all our portables were in the $2500 range so none of it was cheap. Can stuff be done cheap, sure and in some applications it can work just fine. As I say to everyone it depends on your application, location and available resources. 

In the LMR world we use the antenna that was designed for the radio. Its all part of the design. Changing it may result in loss of performance. Just my experience. 
 

Yup. Thats why my repeater are closed and not listed. Even my 2meter repeater is not listed anyplace. I spend lots of time and money to keep these on the air for my use and not others. 

This ^^^^ is what many dont understand about having a good coverage repeater. Some of us pay alot of $$$ out of our pockets to have this stuff on the air. 

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/7898
 
The Front-Range Electronics Engineers GRMS repeater is open to all FCC licensed GRMS operators. It is also open to FCC part 97 operators that do not have a GRMS license, those radio amateurs must register with us for an identifier under the license of the repeater owner.
Uh....Really....Apparently you didn't read the rules....

I run factory short stubby on my LMR stuff for certain applications. When on a TLMR system the whip vs stubby normally is not much different. For range yes the stubby will be limited. Depends on useage. 
 

A repeater acknowledgement is only heard if the repeater operator programs it. It’s not necessary and some do not. 

Glad you have the right person....just now seeing this. I am in WA State, but often went to Alaska for the oil industry. My solar repeaters were for use on buoys and for oil spill response. 
Now, I manage radio networks for a private corporation with fire departments spread across the United States......taking much of my time right now as we are upgrading everyone to APX6000XE and APX8000XE handhelds, lots of work. 

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/7898
 
The Front-Range Electronics Engineers GRMS repeater is open to all FCC licensed GRMS operators. It is also open to FCC part 97 operators that do not have a GRMS license, those radio amateurs must register with us for an identifier under the license of the repeater owner.
Uh....Really....Apparently you didn't read the rules....

Man... what a joke.  If the FCC doesn't spank someone for that, I will lose all respect for that agency.  I think it's wild that here in Norther VA, we have people complaining because they think someone ID'ed in 16 minutes instead of 15 minutes, meanwhile in Castle Rock it's a free-for-all.  It's even in the title.  SMH.

This ^^^^ is what many dont understand about having a good coverage repeater. Some of us pay alot of $$$ out of our pockets to have this stuff on the air. 

I got mine in Dayton as well.  Charger, used battery, antenna and the radio for $420.  One of the guys with the local group had a couple of them and a couple different mission plans to stick in it. 
I found the Bluetooth programming function to be great as I don't yet have a programming cable.  I also need to track down a KVL adapter as some of my personal radio stuff is encrypted. 
I did have one issue with dropping a mission plan in it that wasn't right.  Radio wouldn't boot correctly.  The three finger salute reset the radio and restoration of a known good mission plan got the radio running again. 
 
Being a Motorola guy, I was on the hunt for an APX for seemingly no good reason other than the desire to own one.  I ended up with a 7000 that was VHF/ UHF-R1.  Which is the most desirable option to get for frequency bands.  I was never a big supporter of NAS on a carried radio and I have a legit system ID and radio for work (radio service tech) with direct access to a full system key so I can build any codeplug I want for 'scanning' and when ask what I am doing with a system radio I have a reason to have it.    I mess with the Harris a bit, but I have found the accessories are stupid expensive.  And taking into account I have access to second hand accessories at the office, it's sort of a no brainer to prefer the APX.  I have one RSM for the Harris.  I have at least a dozen RSM's including the 'commander' type with display and channel knob for the APX.  Have the green XE RSM's, have a Pelitor headset and interface for the APX that is noise canceling.  The noise canceling feature on the Pelitor is good enough I can have a phone conversation on the Bluetooth model I have connected to my phone from the gun range I am a member of while I am shooting.   Of course batteries are not at all an issue as I go through the recycle bin and get out of date batteries.  Some that have only been charged a few times and are fine, but out of date.  Fire service doen't use out of date batteries.  This is due to the safety rating for the batteries while in combustible environments and in fires.  My radios are not used in life and death situations on a regular basis, so I am not effected by these things.
I will say that the 'mission plan' design with the ability for the radio to have multiple 'code plugs' that are user accessible is a really handy feature for building travel configurations when you are out of area but not needing to have endless  radio zones in a codeplug.  Sure you can have multiple codeplugs saved in a laptop for the APX and program the radio as needed with them.  But being able to store them in the radio, and switch them on the fly is much handier in my opinion. 
I will also say the programming software is a bit hard to navigate if you are accustom to other programming software.  And in truth it's just a pain all around.  But once you figure it out, it does it's job.  
Congrats on getting the radio, welcome to the Harris owners family and if you really like it a lot, there is a mobile version called the XG-100M.  Basically the same radio in a mobile configuration with some added features.  Might be something to look into.