gortex2

Stop with the negativity. We all know that you are just a hateful rude person with no friends. You really need to pull your head out of your forth point of contact and then see a doctor so that your headspace and timing can be reset.
And to answer why someone would want to listen to the NOAA channels, the internet might go out during a bad storm or the person might be somewhere that there is no internet or cell service. 

Why does it matter. Are you paying electric bil, tower fees and such for them ? You ever think the owners just dont care about users or nets on them ? I have multiple repeaters in multiple states. Some are those "300'" tower you speak of. They are my repeaters and I pay for maintenance and upkeep. they are there for me, my family and a few freinds. I can say 100% if you drive by some of them they are dead all week long as no one is there. Weeks are different. No way I'd want to put farmers or any of that on my stuff. Thats what LMR Part 90 is for. Additionally there is absolutely no requirement to have a repeater on the air. 95% of my traffic is simplex. repeater is there when needed. So its used. 
 

If you're going to stay with Midland, I would recommend with the MXT500 for the 99 channel capacity. Another option would be used Kenwoods or Motorola radios like the Kenwood TK-880 or TK-8180. The TK-880 is a 250 channel radio and the TK-8180 is a 520 channel radio.
For Motorola either the XTL2500 or XTL5000. The XTL2500 would be either the 520 or 840 channel radio, depending on the flashing, and the XTL5000 is a 1000 channel radio.

My radio resides on the dash of the JEEP and there is no necessary reason for it to venture "in a working mode" into my home.  We just don't have any repeaters around and those that have GMRS radios in their vehicles don't turn'em on to my knowledge.  Workers use the FRS radios and even a friend of mine hardly every uses his except off road...
The most I ever used ths one was when I had a friend that traveled with us off road.  He got sick and is home bound 70 miles away..
 
AND THANKS for the list of other radios Nokones.  That was a kind gesture.

NaNa NoNo has spoken.

I don't know how it got to this.  I will tell you how it will end though.
There seems to be an almost 'ham club' mentality about having a repeater.  Long ago, someone told me if you found a town with 2 hams in it, there would be a minimum of 3 ham clubs.  Because each one want's to have his own thing, and then the third club they are both members of. 
GMRS repeater ownership (and I use to see this a LOT in ham too) somehow is some status symbol, or just 'part of having the license'.  People will stand up a medium to poor coverage repeater hanging an antenna at 20 feet in the air just so they can hear their call sign in CW on the air.  Not that they know CW or know it's correct, but it's THEIR repeater.  Never mind there is a monster coverage repeater or two in the area that everyone has access to, they need to do their own thing for whatever reason they have. 
SO here's the outcome.  Guys that build monster coverage GMRS repeaters do it for others to enjoy and operate on.  There is no other reason to build a repeater like that.  It's far easier and cheaper to just build one with the antenna on the end of your garage and be done with it.  This happens at a cost in time, money and labor.  You don't park antenna's multiple hundreds of feet in the air using LMR400 or RG8.  Antenna's that will put up with the wind at 200 feet do NOT come from Ed Fong, Retivis, or Comet.  And they certainly aren't cheap.
When the little play time repeaters start pulling the users away from the big repeaters, and it's not the asset that it was, or the owner doesn't see it that way, they will QUICKLY decide that it's not worth the effort to keep theirs on the air and the big repeaters will go away.  You will go from being able to talk across an entire county on one repeater to hopscotching across a city from repeater to repeater trying to carry on a conversation that would have been no problem on the big repeater. 
And you can sit here and pontificate all you want about that not being the roll of GMRS.  NO ONE care's.  Figure it out.  That's what it's being used for regardless of what you say, the regulations indicate, or the FCC has conveyed.  It's a social gathering medium.  Pure and simple.  So while it may be meant for that use.  It's what it's being used for.
I just personally experienced a setback with a project at my site.  We crested $400 A MONTH for the electric bill.  I was looking to run an inverter to power part of the gear that will not power off DC any reasonable way.  But converting 48 volts to 120 volts and the feeding servers don't make them draw less, the draw went up significantly.
Which lead me to look at what I am sitting on.  I have a bunch of good 75 and 105 Ah AGM batteries that would sell easily for 50 bucks a pop.  Just the 48 volt plant batteries are worth a grand.  Then there are another 12 divided between the 12 and 24 volt plants.  So another thousand plus dollars.  IN BATTERIES, sitting there so that others can use the repeaters I host for NO cost to them.  SO yes, when it seems that Elvis as left the building and the repeaters aren't getting used, they will be shut off, sold off and I will NOT care in the slightest. 
I can't wrap my mind around why we are getting on here and COMPLAINING about the actions of others.  Are these other repeaters interfering with YOUR repeater?  Are you unable to put up you own 20 foot antenna for your own repeater that will equally not serve anyone, and have less coverage than two walkies on simplex?  I fail to understand the issue here.  Do you have thousands of dollars in equipment that the user base is slowly dwindling away because they put up their own repeaters and they choose to go hang out on them and talk to no one because no one is in the coverage footprint besides them? 
 
 

As others have said many of the repeaters you have listed are bogus but everyone adds stuff to this site thinking its some way to "save" a channel or somthing. So going by the site list is really useless.
As for why someone may have more repeaters, I'll use myself as an example. Also before you ask none of mine are listed anywhere as I dont feel I need to. They are my property and I maintaint them for my use. So back to my repeaters. I have 2 in my area for a north and south coverage footprint. Both can be accessed from me at home or my parents house. I also have 2 repeaters in another state. I use those when I am in that state as does my family and friends. I also have a repeater for my motorhome so it goes where I go. So I can see how some folks may have multiple. 
JMHO..

4 isn't really that many if you have difficult terrain to overcome. Yes, it's an investment, but if it's useful to you, who cares. Now, having 4 tower leases, or even have someone willing to lease you tower space, that's the impressive part, considering crown castle won't even return a phone call.

The bigger question is “why do you care?”

Did someone prevent you from putting up a repeater of your own?

With multiple channels and tones available, one can certainly own and operate a repeater if they desire.

I can see the Bernie bumper sticker on your Prius from way over here…..

Like I said, just don't take the MyGMRS listing as gospel. If you look at the guy that has 9 repeaters in my area they are all at the same location.

It doesn't mean it's real or correct.

Take what's reported as repeaters with a grain of salt. One of the multi repeater sites you have on your list in my area is just plain fantasy. Your listing shows 9 repeaters for the call when there is actually only one low power network (maybe why it shows so many repeaters) hotspot that he runs on rare occasion.
There is on the other hand another guy that your list shows has 4 but has 6 repeaters. All of them are stand alone (not linked), on different frequencies (but same tones) and cover most of the west coast of Florida from Bradenton to Naples (around 120 miles spaced around 20-25 miles apart) and a few of them are quite strong. It's kinda nice to be able to drive the I-75 route south of Tampa and have reliable repeaters along the way. 
At least that's what I know of in my area, others I'm sure are different.

As a confirmed TARD ( Total amateur radio dork) I can confirm. The Midland 500 is an excellent radio but not great for long winded blathering. Fortunately I found a fan on amazon that moves about 25CFM that when positioned about 1/2 inch or 3/4 behind the heatsink on the back of the radio transforms the radio into a long winded beast.
 It is an excellent performing radio on receive as well as transmit. Out of the box, not ready for a TARD. But a cheap amazon fan fixes that. The entire case is a heatsink and for a low duty cycle is fine on 50W. But if you need to pontificate for long periods forced air cooling does the trick. The top cover might look like sheet metal in pictures but it isn't. It's an aluminum casting like the bottom. 
Addition of a fan makes it completely dorktastical and you too can enjoy great performance and be the bane of all repeaters by getting one.
 Highly recommended radio. It's easy to program from the front panel and has power to get the job done.
 The only downside is that it does not have tone scan built in. FAIL. Fortunately as a TARD I have equipment  that scans very fast so no sweat. And a notebook and a pen to write frequencies and tones down is ideal for grid down situations.
https://acinfinity.com/equipment-cooling/axial-8038-muffin-120v-ac-cooling-fan-80mm-x-80mm-x-38mm-low-speed/   Don't use the included grill..it increases the noise.
 

It can be done as a voting system which isn't cheap. The two repeaters listen to the incoming signal then the one with the better receive "score" triggers its transmitter. Yes, the repeaters are interconnected but it's for the purpose of control and not relaying messages.

Yes I run the Uniden CMX760 in both the JT and the 09JK. I have it on the bench from my old work truck just dealing with finding an antenna location on my new work truck. Its small and with 4 multibands on roof already Its been lower on the list. The new JK (18) is for the wife and being JJUSA is all GMRS probably just leave GMRS for now. Tomorrow will be it first trail ride since we got it done. 

That's a bold move.. That's where the speaker for the XTL5000 in my JKU is mounted - but its much smaller than your XPR..
BTW, I support your desire for P25. That's what we use for all of our encrypted comms.

Programming a DMR radio is not simple and I'm sure most people will not want to mess with it. P25 is so much simpler than DMR. However, my radio club will have a few codeplug templates available for the club's approved radios to help the members to get on the air.

I can only take one person.  I removed the rear seat so I can have my refrigerator and carry my recovery gear, and of course, install/bolt down the VHF and UHF XTL5000 remote radios on the floor.  The attached picture is without the recovery gear. The next time I load up my recovery gear, I'll snap a picture and post it.
 

 

My radio club in the near future will be implementing a DMR repeater system in the near future with a repeater located on high elevated remote radio site.  The long-term goal is having linked repeaters throughout the State for Statewide radio coverage.  Since, I am essentially don't have any spare room in my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2 Dr. I elected to go overhead with the installation of a Motorola XPR5550e dashmount radio.  This makes the fourth radio I have installed in my jeep.
I was hoping the Club would have gone the P25 route, but they decided to go DMR.  

As mentioned, none.
HOWEVER --
Midland is based in the United States, unlike most of the other low-cost GMRS radio companies.

You get what you paid for. If you buy cheap then it is cheaply built and you're really not saving money and time in the long run and you run the risk of it unexpectantly failing. If that is your style, go ahead and be cheap. I prefer to buy it once so I don't waste my time in dealing with it again. It has worked very well for me in all these decades. I refused to buy cheap Pandaland POS junk.

Available from U.S. owned companies? (another attribute that matters a lot to many) - and remember, the key feature of this radio is the LACK of features (and complications) - So I am curious which you would recommend in its place?

I was told by a (former) Midland Marketing person that this is by design - the entire chassis is a heat sink so a fan is not needed, but yes, you feel the heat.
Also, beware that "some people" are going to leave ssstupid comments in this thread declaring that this radio "sucks", "is junk", it's too expensive, it's gimmicky, etc, etc, because it does not have the features that THEY think are important. So bear in mind that Midland did not design this radio for them, they designed it for normal people such as yourself that just need to talk to people while driving. Midland did not design this radio for losers that sit in the basement searching for anonymous men to chat with over the radio to brag about how many buttons or knobs their radio has.

I  bought this radio in January and after 3 months, I still really like it. This radio gives you what you need. High power of 50 watts, mid power 20 watts and low power 5 watts. Using a dummy load, the outputs have been right on the button. It is super easy to operate and easily programmable from the front panel, I have no need for software The transmit and receive audio are very good and, YES, you can choose wide band or narrow band. It does, however, lack a cooling fan and can warm up pretty quickly in a longer conversation. I can only hope that Midland took this into account when working out heat dissipation in the design. It IS expensive, but having fond memories of using Midland gear back in the 70's, I chose to go with them again.
Pete WSGL709

I'm beginning to think that when brains were being handed out, Negative Nancy though someone said "trains so he said "no thanks, I'll take the (short) bus".
Unfortunately I have had the same argument about GMRS repeater ID requirements with fellow members of my amateur radio club. I had to break the regulations down for them so they would understand that a GMRS repeater does need to ID per Part 95.1751 quoted above.
When they kept bringing up family members I had to remind them that we are in Missouri and not Arkansas. Plus the fact that most people that use our repeater are NOT related and they have their own GMRS licenses.