gortex2

Asstated GMRS is in the middle of the business band. Most any UHF 450-470 antenna will perform fine. 

Your never going to talk to a repeater 80 miles away on an HT.... 

That needs to be hammered in to everybody's head! If you can't hear the other station nothing else matters.
People get so hung up on how much power does the radio have, 5 watts, 15 watts, 50 watts plus. Seems sort of silly to get other people to run high power because you radio's receiver sucks.
Some of the crappy CCR's are fairly deaf and or very prone to receiving signals that are not on the actual frequency being used. I have one that I can pickup a UHF fire dispatch transmission clear as a bell on several FRS/GMRS channels. And that transmitter has to be a good 15 to 20 miles away!! Nice looking radio, receiver selectivity sucks. It's good for a beater radio but that's about all. I haven't used it in many months. Fortunately I didn't spend that much on it.

I loaned a pair of KG805M's to a buddy who lives near where we hunt.  In the winter, he and his wife are out frequently to XC ski, snowshoe, etc.  My email back from him about 5 days after receiving my care package:  "We bought two MURS radios."  And, this was with the stock antennas, not the Smiley 5/8 155-tuned antennas I sent along as well.

The thing is there are literally tens of thousands of communication sites that rely on high quality lightning arresters and and grounding systems with all grounds bonded.  They ride through massive lightning storms.  Not one of them relies on someone disconnecting a chunk of coax and placing it in a jar. 
A direct strike certainly introduces some uncertainty, but forcing the lightning to take an unknown path by disconnecting a conductor and placing it in a glass container rather than providing a path to ground is worse.  It’s voodoo engineering and we shouldn’t perpetuate such ideas.  
This document has lots of information (chapter 4 I believe) and also lists many other references. 
https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf
An even more succinct one is the document I linked earlier in the thread, but this one is the most comprehensive I’ve found yet, establishing minimum distances between the antenna tower and any radio buildings, showing how to protect antennas mounted laterally on towers with lightning rods, and many other situations.
 

I would not rely on GMRS for an emergency. Even in all my years of SAR FRS/GMRS has never helped us. For my work I carry a Garmin Inreach + Its $15 a month for piece of mind.
 

If your house is 40' from the "radio shack" you can just ground the antenna at the radio shack. There is no need to run to the house. With that said remember that your "ground" wire from the repeater will be going back to the house via some sort of 110v power source unless your having a drop from the power company. If thats the case you definitely want surge protection on the 110 volt leads also going into the radio shack. 
The issue with cable is not all the transmit power. The more critical issue in any repeater is RX sensitivity. If your loosing 5 db in the receive line your almost killing portable use to the repeater. This is what many dont think about. 

Pick the channel of the repeater you want to use and put enter the DCS/PL tone needed. Its pretty simple and is in the manual step by step.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0531/2856/0817/t/10/assets/MXT275-Owners-Manual.pdf?v=1619734294
 

Here’s an article, written in English rather than “regulish”, on correct grounding for antenna systems.  You really ought to reconsider your grounding.
https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

Midland has also been making radios for 30+ years. My first GMRS radio was a 4 channel crystal radio from Midland. You ordered it with the channel you got licensed on. The other advantage is Midland makes a GMRS radio only. Its not a modified ham radio or other CCR based chip radio. While its not top of the line its built for GMRS and GMRS only. I think that goes along way in the simplicity and use of the radio. For many users that's what hey want. They don't want programming and other complicated items. They want to install it turn it on and use it. Midland has sold many GMRS radios since they started selling them and will continue to sell regardless what you or I want added. 

I have yet to find a reason to upgrade my MTX275. I have never not been able to communicate with other Jeeps on the trail nor not able to hit a repeater that I should be able to. As said your not going to gain a ton by going up in power. Antenna is most critical point of any radio. I guess in the end what is the reason you think you need to upgrade ? 

Midland has also been making radios for 30+ years. My first GMRS radio was a 4 channel crystal radio from Midland. You ordered it with the channel you got licensed on. The other advantage is Midland makes a GMRS radio only. Its not a modified ham radio or other CCR based chip radio. While its not top of the line its built for GMRS and GMRS only. I think that goes along way in the simplicity and use of the radio. For many users that's what hey want. They don't want programming and other complicated items. They want to install it turn it on and use it. Midland has sold many GMRS radios since they started selling them and will continue to sell regardless what you or I want added. 

What applies to ships at sea also applies to vehicles on the ground. Many years ago, after working on vehicle mounted radios for the military, I went to work for the oil industry, and radios aboard a fleet of ships. Well antenna gain issue cropped up often, as many think more gain means more "amplification" of receive signal, not realizing that it is also the radiation pattern impacting signal as BoxCar mentions. Very often, someone would place a 12 dB gain antenna on a small vessel and it had trouble talking to a larger vessel, even when in line of sight and close in distance.
An isotropic antenna would radiate like a sphere, while a 3dB gain antenna may radiate like a doughnut, 6 db gain antenna like a pancake, a 9 dB antenna like a thick tortilla or naan bread, and a 12 dB antenna like an LP record. So, with a 12 dB gain antenna on a small vessel, and a 0-3 dB gain antenna on a large ship, the only reliable communication (due to height differences between vessels) is when the little one is bobbing around and the radiation (transmit for smaller vessel and receive for larger) match up. This is where height and a 0-6dB antenna are much more useful, as they both have transmit and receive patterns that can reach other stations. Power is also an issue, as more power in a more focused radiation pattern can mean more distance. Cars and fixed radio stations are impacted the same way. 
When it comes to wattage and a mobile radio, Part 90 radios in use by public safety, commercial use, and hobby use are often limited to about 50 watts. Motorola, Vertex, Icom, Kenwood, mobiles are often 25/40/50 watts. Attached is a lab kit for Radio over Internet Protocol, with a Motorola XPR4550 UHF 40 watt mobile shown. I used Motorola mobiles for GMRS, with my CDM1550LS+ at 50 watts. GMRS radios usually max out around 50 watts too. Radiation exposure specifications will usually specify 6 foot or so (sometimes less) of separation between people and antennas in the UHF range at 50 watts. 50 watts mobile, with RG-58, and the shorter run in a vehicle than up a high mounted fixed antenna will get you ten to twenty miles, depending on terrain and local conditions. I myself usually run about 10 to 20 watts mobile and have no problem hearing people, hitting repeaters ten miles away, and transmitting back. The radio tops out at 10 watts, my RG-58 cable run is about twelve feet, and I have a decent antenna on the trunk which acts as a good ground plane. If what you have works, then let that itch go to a basestation, or a handheld that can be taken when not in your vehicle. Glad to see someone else get further into this......GMRS has taken off over the past few years for sure. 

Hope you spend funds on a good chunk of hard line and a real antenna. 

I carry a inreach mini when I'm longlining (deckhand) out in the gulf of alaska.  I use the freedom plan for $65 and unlimited texting and tracking and weather it's awesome.  The boss is cool with us using the Sat phone but to be able to text at-will from almost anywhere is so nice. 

Something I was thinking about with regard to Line A... 90% of the US population lives on the the US borders and coast lines.  ~79,633,000 people live on the northern border.  That means that Line A has the potential to impact communications for more than 24% of the people in the lower 48 states.
 
As much as I like the idea of picking a channel, a channel other than 20 to avoid conflict with potential ORI type repeaters, a solution that potentially excludes almost one quarter of the population doesn't seem like a solution at all, IMHO.  In fact, I would be more prone to encourage people to use 20 over 19, since many repeaters have light traffic and operators are supposed to be mindful of not causing interference as part of their license agreement, anyway.
 
I don't know the right answer.  Just thinking.

@gortex2  Unfortunately, what you are saying about the Hams is all too common.  I have seen some crap installs, gear not fired up and tested for 5 years or more, no one showing up for training.  When they do show up, they will gab all day on the radio, but get mic shy when it comes to moving voice traffic.  Almost none of them know how to align the parabolic antennas for the WLAN and even if they did, they wouldn't know how to troubleshoot if they don't link.  Almost no packet/data experience at all.  It's a struggle to get them to complete the headers on IC213 and IC214 forms correctly and use them.
 
I am not going to name names, but I am part of 2 ARES/RACES groups.  One of them exemplifies everything a well run ARES/RACES team should look like.  The other team has 6 active members of which 3 are the EC and 2 AEC's.  By active, I mean, show up twice a year for training.  If I don't put a training session together, training for that group just doesn't happen, and I'm not the one who is supposed to be training people for that group.
 
I pray the served agencies never call this second group, because they can't do anything.  Myself and one other operator have amazing portable stations that can provide any service.  I don't trust the gear in place at the served locations, nor does the other Ham... we both agree that if they ever call us, we are bringing our own gear and hoping the neighboring team can provide additional support before one or both of us pass out from exhaustion. 

As mentioned by many, this seems to be an age old topic.  If you do a general search, you'll find that 462.675 with a CTCSS of 141.3 has, for many years now, a general status of a "GMRS Travel Channel".

That said, just because such a designation exists, doesn't mean anybody is going to do anything to support it/the idea to make it useful to travelers. 

It's kinda like the old CB Channel 9 thing which was suppose to be for emergencies and for a time back in the CB boom, many police departments monitored Channel 9 and some even had a CB radio in their squad cars.  That said, it wasn't a universal buy in on the part of law enforcement nationally.  Current era, I don't see law enforcement, especially in these times, getting money to purchase GMRS equipment even for the dispatch centers, let alone police vehicles.

Even in Amateur radio, 146.5200 (VHF) and to a lesser extent 446.0000 (UHF) have been considered 'calling/emergency' frequencies, but with the exception of some geographical areas, these frequencies are rarely monitored routinely and so are of little use to a traveler.  Indeed, if I were traveling , I'd prefer HF in the vehicle for a variety of reasons, not just emergencies.

To be sure, I'm not opposed to the general concept, really I'm not. I just think it isn't practical in the bigger picture. 

However again, you or (some other interested entity) can designate a GMRS traveler channel which, as previously noted, has sort of been done, but it doesn't mean anyone will support it to the point where it actually serves a useful purpose.

Just an opinion...

Well thats always a challenge. Couple of ways I do it is first drill with a 6' mason bit. Also you can rent a Hammer Drill an adapter at many home improvement stores. I own mine but they make an adapter for a ground bar. Last choice is a BFH. If using option 3 I find putting a chunk of pipe with a cap (Iron pipe) helps protect the bar. 

Absolutely, a TYT to XPR5550e swap yields a range from <2 miles to 18 miles, simplex... on a two bay dipole.
Also, no filtering in the front end means TX IMD, which will further trash the range of the radio. Again, those things are that, garbage.

Well, here is what COVID has taught us.  Hams are typically older retired guys that have nothing else to do so they volunteer.
Problem is with that is things like COVID are specifically more harmful to them and that's who's gonna show up.  As mentioned before, young guys are NOT typically involved.
Then you have the issue of ham radio operators being volunteers, and not paid employees.  With a paid employee you have the employment to leverage them to show up and do a job.  With a volunteer, that doesn't exist.  And short of a quarantine or lock down situation, you have no method of holding that person in place and demanding their continued work.  And even in the lockdown situation, you can hold them but demanding they work is not possible.  Not to mention that they are only able to do so much.  Operating radios and making coffee.  
So, pertaining to my comments and the league.  Go look at their web site and the sites of the typical ARES groups.  It's a sea of hi-viz vests and name tags with their call sign on it.   Mind you I am tainted by ARES.  The local group has been in the past a poster child for the way to do ARES WRONG.  Demanding they be involved in public safety training exercises and other dumb stuff.  So yeah, I don't see the need.   And I do see EMA groups trying to move away from any reliance on ham radio for various reasons.

@WRKC935 Yes the 412. Love the box other than a couple analog features they left out. I have one back pack that fits it well but normally just toss it in a small pelican case and carry it with the phase stable cables. 
For the rest of the conversation the other thing folks are not remembering is these CCR radios have very wide filtering aka none for GMRS. Using a CCR base/portable and inferior cable and antenna's doesn't do what a commercial LMR radio and equipment will do (regardless of band). Noise floor is worse on a CCR especially as height increases. Just something to remember. I would suspect swapping out the TYT or Wuxon mobile for a XPR or CDM you will see the difference. 

SS benefits are non-taxable at all if it is one's only source of income for any year.
If 50% of one's SS plus the gross amount of taxable income earned for any year is LESS THAN the Base Amount for one's filing status then SS is non-taxable.
Legally I'm not even required to file a tax return at all. ?
I'm so poor I can't even afford to pay attention!

I also got my MXT500 a few days ago. The feature to fill in channels 8-14 with repeaters is very nice. But I love the mic connection. Very much like a CB mic connection. Those RJ-45 connections just beg for collecting dirt. I currently have the KG-1000G installed in my Jeep. Sooo many options. Too many really. This Midland has 15 menu options, most of which I'm smart enough to use. Midland is much easier to pronounce than Wouxun.
Good solid feel. Fewer buttons than the MXT 400. Good use of the channel knob in selection and changing options. I tried two different USB to USB-C cables that did not allow communications between the PC and radio. Thought it was a driver issue. But then tried a couple of bulkier cables and it worked perfectly. Like the use of the scan button to add and delete channels from the scan. Split tones were a little different to enter on the radio, but once you get the hang of it, fine. Seriously considering replacing my 1000G with this dandy.
 
 
 

I think NYC area has a similar dispute that has been going on for years. After reading about the CA stuff I'm glad I live in the country ! I could put all 8 repeaters up but I'd have to give each cow their own channel