IanM

Very excited for it, we have a ton of repeaters in my area including a very active one covering the entire Seattle metro. That, and I enjoy even just listening whatever other chatter I can pick up. I was listening to a few local Ham repeater nets as well, at least until my Baofeng decided to self-immolate on the charger (it's going back and an 805 is now taking its place)...
Re: the ham ticket, not yet, but I'm on it; planning on sitting the test soon. Less interested in chatting on it than doing various radio related experiments, and figured I needed a good challenge as The Big Dark sets in here in western Washington.

First was, I think, an old set of those neon-yellow waterproof Talkabouts. Nothing could kill them, aside from leaky batteries. 
Latest is a Motorola LMR set. I have three of the Wouxuns, and I do absolutely love how solid the 905 is, but the Moto knocks it out of the park. A little lower power on TX, but just edges out the superhet Wouxuns on reception. Also have a PSM mic for it, which doesn't get a whole lot of use, but is handy when it does—popped one of the Wouxun UHF antennas on it and stick the radio in a pack and you're good to go. IMPRES smart batteries are nice, too.
Downside of course with Part 90 gear, as @Lscott mentioned, is no field programming, and expensive/difficult to find/complex software. And those IMPRES batteries and chargers are pricy—thankfully mine came with both, and the battery, first activated in 2019, still had a lot of life.

Interesting observation, and might explain my experiences. I'm maybe a mile and a half from a local 2m repeater up on a hill I regularly use, and the voice modulation comes in strong and clear, there's a very high noise floor of static and buzz. UHF, both 70cm and GMRS come in just fine, very quiet. I'm in a midrise in the middle of Seattle. There's for sure a lot of noise pollution in every band (don't even get me started about WiFi interference in a 150 unit building!), but that might be why VHF is particularly problematic. 
To the earlier topic about power vs sensitivity/selectivity; my observations jive with @mbrun as well as to there being little correlation; I was up on the roof doing a side-by-side with the 905G, UV8H and a commercial-grade Motorola  this evening, playing musical antennas (a test for another thread) and testing with someone on a distant repeater, both 70cm and GMRS. The 8W, SoC UV8H was the loser on all counts, and the 4W Motorola ( @gman1971—an XPR6550, also with the stock, albeit UHF antenna) came out way ahead on reception. Again, we're talking very fringe situations on a site 30+ miles away. 
That all said—I have no idea how Wyoming's SAR operates, but good on them for advertising this frequency. Looks like it's not actively monitored. @GuySagi, thanks for sharing your SAR experience as well, and I wonder what equipment they specifically will implement; around here, both SAR volunteers and the Sheriff's Office are on VHF, so at the very least its another radio to pack.
Remember, we're not talking about intra-agency communications. We're talking about them being able to monitor a frequency in the off chance someone's got a radio on them, which is such a huge advantage. No, cheap bubble-packs are not the optimum means of communications backwoods, but it's still another tool, period—I can't think of anyone else I know outside my family and regular hiking friends that carry a radio of any kind, let alone the kind of gear we use here. If someone is going to have anything at all outside a cellphone, It'll likely be a Talkabout or a Midland or some such, capped at 5W, so the channel itself is sort of a moot point as long as it's memorable. That might be a problem for those with a 50W mobile with power output locked on certain channels, but I also think most of us here might be savvy enough to figure a way around that.
For myself, if I'm in the woods (as I somewhat often am) and an emergency arises outside a cell site, heck, I'll try anything—146.52, GMRS 1 or 20, any repeater on either service. Tremendously valuable just to have that with me anyway.

Honestly, I wouldn't be totally opposed to the cost—I agree, copying and pasting is a nightmare, and even more so trying to run a VM on my long-in-the-tooth iMac. But I still put up with it, because I'm cheap and spent that money on more gear.... 
Mentioned in another thread someone is working on a UV8H driver for Chirp that, hopefully, will either mostly work or will get ported over for the 935. 

I'm of the same mind; as I understand the certification rules, both 90 and 95, they're mostly directed at/enforced against manufacturers and distributors, and the intention seems to be aimed at preventing LMR/GMRS users from accidentally stepping over on other bands—both services are under the assumption that (most) end-users are less-than-savvy utility users, and the radios should be idiot-proof. As you said, if you're behaving, there's really no noticeable difference to other users of the service if you're not technically on a GMRS set. A bigger problem seems to be people buying business-band radios on Amazon and having no idea they're stepping on other licensed users.
I've posted here about some software hacks on several models, and give out the disclaimer that they do violate certification; on another forum I got burned mentioning that I used a ham radio model on a GMRS channel (incidentally from someone who encouraged some more questionable practices on a different thread that nearly amount to jamming. I'm taking the risk legal but it's on others as well.
 
But I digress; on the UV-5 series:
I've read a number of reports of people upgrading antennas and ending up with worse reception, which seems to be owing to the front end being overwhelmed, but that obviously is dependent on how much RF is floating around in your area. A real 1/4 wave will definitely make a huge improvement on TX though. The battery for sure is a nice upgrade just for handling sake as well—I was shocked out how small the UV-5G was out of the box. Pocketable but almost hard to hold.
Re: the external charging socket, Miklor has a neat hack for building a USB charger for it.
 
And another side note: I did like how the GMRS-V1 handled, but not how limited it was on programming repeaters. There's a couple places around the web, both sellers and reviewers, who have suggested the parent UV-82 has some improved guts over the 5R on the front end, but I'm not sure I believe it. The UV-5G/X is definitely an improvement on programmability over the V1, and on the ham front, I'd guess some of the newer Baofengs probably add a lot of features over the getting-long-in-the-tooth UV82. That said, I don't know if the UV82 is frequency-hackable or has if it's been locked down the way the 5R has. What's $30 to experiment? (again, caveat emptor re: part 95.)

I know; I tried to make the comment as general as possible, as I'm basing it off of things that have been said not just in this thread, or even this forum in general, but in other venues as well...kind of what I see related to GMRS overall.
I personally won't assume a repeater as open unless it's listed as such, and have reached out for (and received) permission on a couple.  I do wonder if there's some in the listings that were listed to help with coordination but intended as private, but weren't clearly marked so when the owner set them up. As was discussed in the open/closed repeaters thread, they're still property of the owner, who does get to dictate who can or can't use it, despite the limited spectrum we get with GMRS. While I can see wanting to know what's around, I would also agree that it's extremely bad form trying to muscle into an unlisted repeater; if it's the ONLY thing around, I wouldn't see an issue in taking a shot and reaching out (by mail, if that's the only way) and ASKING if they'd  be willing to allow access on an emergency basis, but if not, that's their option.
100% agreed that being respectful is the best way to win friends, whether catching someone on simplex, or when it comes to repeaters.  Jumping in the middle of someone's conversation (especially since they probably aren't expecting other users, its definitely something to take into account if you try to 'approach'), or on their repeater unexpectedly isn't likely to win friends. 
Personally, I have to practically twist arms to get my family to touch a radio, even off grid, so my actual use on GMRS is minimal, though I do monitor here and there, or respond to a radio check if I hear someone asking. Like some others, I did get my hopes up based on the enthusiasm here, trying GMRS as a 'ham-lite' while everything was shut down, but my area is almost entirely more like 'FRS-plus", and once things started picking up I expanded into ham.  The mindset on the ham side is definitely more open, and the attitude toward repeaters is also definitely more open.
Finally, I'll also admit to being a little more 'flexible' on some rules than others, mainly based on "will my actions affect someone else?" and logic behind it, but I also feel a responsibility to encourage others on the "right" path as much as possible, and help them have realistic expectations of what they'll find in each.

I'm of the same mind; as I understand the certification rules, both 90 and 95, they're mostly directed at/enforced against manufacturers and distributors, and the intention seems to be aimed at preventing LMR/GMRS users from accidentally stepping over on other bands—both services are under the assumption that (most) end-users are less-than-savvy utility users, and the radios should be idiot-proof. As you said, if you're behaving, there's really no noticeable difference to other users of the service if you're not technically on a GMRS set. A bigger problem seems to be people buying business-band radios on Amazon and having no idea they're stepping on other licensed users.
I've posted here about some software hacks on several models, and give out the disclaimer that they do violate certification; on another forum I got burned mentioning that I used a ham radio model on a GMRS channel (incidentally from someone who encouraged some more questionable practices on a different thread that nearly amount to jamming. I'm taking the risk legal but it's on others as well.
 
But I digress; on the UV-5 series:
I've read a number of reports of people upgrading antennas and ending up with worse reception, which seems to be owing to the front end being overwhelmed, but that obviously is dependent on how much RF is floating around in your area. A real 1/4 wave will definitely make a huge improvement on TX though. The battery for sure is a nice upgrade just for handling sake as well—I was shocked out how small the UV-5G was out of the box. Pocketable but almost hard to hold.
Re: the external charging socket, Miklor has a neat hack for building a USB charger for it.
 
And another side note: I did like how the GMRS-V1 handled, but not how limited it was on programming repeaters. There's a couple places around the web, both sellers and reviewers, who have suggested the parent UV-82 has some improved guts over the 5R on the front end, but I'm not sure I believe it. The UV-5G/X is definitely an improvement on programmability over the V1, and on the ham front, I'd guess some of the newer Baofengs probably add a lot of features over the getting-long-in-the-tooth UV82. That said, I don't know if the UV82 is frequency-hackable or has if it's been locked down the way the 5R has. What's $30 to experiment? (again, caveat emptor re: part 95.)

The 935G and UV8H do not have dual scan; I don't believe the product literature says it does anywhere. No way to switch to a different slot while scanning, since, as mentioned, pressing any key stops scanning. Bit of a pain. Some LMR radios will let you set a channel to default to on PTT while scanning, and the dual-display would otherwise be a nice way to replicate that.
But I believe the UV9 series is the only one that allows you to scan in the 'background' so to speak. Something mentioned specifically on the sales pages as an upgrade over the UV8 models.
 
One workaround is to set the top soft key as PTT on the secondary frequency. It'll still stop scanning but let you switch back to the static channel a little quicker.

Glad I could help, and usual caveats apply (driver is in development, use at own risk, part 95 yadda yadda). Really do hope some fully fledged drivers for the Wouxun GMRS models get developed eventually. Definitely wouldn't be hard to port over the existing ones that sort-of work on the 805 and 935; I just don't have that sort of coding skill or confidence! 
It is a huge help to have CHIRP just for channel editing alone. It's downright painful to move or reorder channels in the manufacturer software.

Somewhat new GMRS user (at least in the world of repeaters) and new ham (but with a lengthy interest in radio in general) here, and I'm maybe wading into dangerous territory with this older thread, but I do have some thoughts, and that it's worth respecting both viewpoints here on repeater access and use of the few channels we have. 
As with any hobby, we want to find a use for our toys, and those uses can be varied. Sometimes it's easy to forget there are other sides of the hobby, or antagonize them.  Not everyone is using the radio just for the sake of using a radio
Over on the ham side, you've got all sorts of things. CW and DXing, ARES/RACES, social nets, AMSAT, packet radio, you name it. I don't know how much overlap there is on each of those niches, but there's plenty of spectrum to go around. Or at least enough. Yet there's still plenty of arguing by the "Sad Hams" on who's doing it right, which seems to be whatever they aren't.
OTOH, we're limited to 22 little channels here, and only 50W and repeaters on 8 of them (six, if you're like me and 'North of Line A'). We have to play nice. Thanks to the past posters who mentioned the roots of GMRS as CB Class-A and some business use, which explains why we get such a small slice of spectrum. Thankfully, we're not dictated on what we can use it for. But for better or worse, we share it with FRS, and bubble-packs (licensed or not), Garmin RHINO, legacy-license businesses, and the like. Clearly it's used as a 'utility' service, whatever that may be. Maybe to you it's shooting the breeze, and to others its something else, and that's the beauty of it, since by nature it's fairly limited in range.
I've seen complaints around the web of GMRS users coming across families yapping, traffic flaggers and the like, and, well, assuming they're licensed or using FRS, they have every right to be there. Even if they're not, they're there, and thankfully at least around here it doesn't sound anything like the chaos of CB. That's why we're limited to 50W and not 1500W. (also thankfully, in my area in the middle of Seattle, all I ever hear regularly are some carpenters on a nearby construction site, and a parent checking in on their child walking home from school.) Yes, its frustrating to hear kids screaming on Channel 1 day and night, but the disdain should be towards discourteous users, rather than all utility users.
Someone earlier mentioned communication while kayaking, and similarly I'm sure many here are off-roaders switching from other communication modes, and as another person replied, for them the radio is in support of another hobby, rather than the hobby itself. For me, I'm interested in radio as a hobby as well, but in a way I can use it for what I need. That's the type of thing I use it for—group and family outings and beyond-cell, or alternative-to-cell communications. To that end I like that GMRS is relatively quiet.Something I don't appreciate, when I have been using it for intra-party communications, is someone coming on a simplex channel and asking to strike up a conversation. No, I don't want to chat, I'm halfway down a mountain, trying to get ahold of our ride at the trailhead. Using tones appears to be a no-no in ham bands, but I definitely use them on GMRS simplex. 
Anyway. With all that said, I certainly understand @JCase's views on this, in wanting to limit all those other uses when you need wide coverage. In the Seattle area, we've got quite a few repeaters, including many unlisted ones in-city, that are private, for neighborhood/emergency use, or request permission and discourage rag-chewing. That's their choice—unlike in amateur, there's no (voluntary) governing body on choosing a channel, and they don't have rule over a specific frequency, but it's their equipment and they have every right to be picky over who can access it. Many of them are in areas with no cellular coverage, and I too would be a bit miffed if I couldn't get through to family member because of chitchat, or they turned their radio off because of such. And I appreciate those that have extended the offer to me with the expectation I'm not going to yak all day to strangers. Most of them are not 'for absolute emergency use only'—they want them to be used, but they also want them to be usable and not clogged up.
Again, 50W will only go so far in most places. It's their right, legally and in practice, to have a privately accessed system, and it's likely not going to step on others' systems. This is what I mean by GMRS being utility oriented. 
But in counterpoint, I also appreciate those like @WRKC935 that have invested the time, money and effort into building something for complete public access. Looking at the WWARA database, I'm astounded at how many repeaters are in the area. And scanning through, equally astounded at how many are dead quiet, or on further research strongly discourage use other than some specific purpose; again, that's their right as equipment owners, but it's nice that some owners have stepped up to provide a community forum. On those bands, where repeater slots are coordinated, both 2m and 70cm are pretty full with very wide coverage systems—there's no room to say "hey, I'll just start my own repeater!"
Again here, on GMRS, we have one repeater up on Tiger Mountain that covers much of the region, and it gets used for ragchewing, even if it's the same 5 or so guys, and that's great that it doesn't sit there silent. Agreed with @mbrun that if you're gong to cover that much ground with one frequency, it is a public service in a way. People have the technical know-how and resources to set up something like that make it more useful for everyone, not just radio junkies. Moreso than the amateur band, I do believe that, with cellular taking away a lot of the user base and the growth of different wireless data modes, GMRS is at use-it-or-lose-it risk.
I do hope this doesn't come off as the radio police (or alternately, too wishy-washy). I try not to be pedantic, since there's too much arguing over Part 95 or when to ID and things like that. I just think that we occupy a special niche—restricted in equipment, power, and frequencies, but not in coordinating through a regulating body; we're neither CB nor amateur—but it's small, and we need to make everyone happy. You can have a small private repeater for your neighborhood or a public one for your whole county, but be understanding of other uses, even the mom calling kids in for dinner on simplex.
And to @Doctnj the radio world is fun, and there's lots to play with and many ways to put it into good use. I've long been an audio and phone tinkerer, and I thank MacJack on here for suggesting I get my ham ticket, since I learned in studying for it that there's a lot more to that than the quite literally old boys' club, and room to experiment with things you can bring back to GMRS. No reason to be one or the other!

Easy peasy, but like I said, it's an in-development driver. Download it here. You'll need to run 'developer mode' under Help > Enable Developer Functions. Then go to File > Load Module, and locate that file you just downloaded. Hook up the radio, download, et voila. You won't see anything under the settings tab, because the developer is still working on it, and the 935 seems to have the settings mapped in the memory a little differently. DONT edit anything in the Browser. But you should be able to add and edit new memory slots just fine. Obviously you won't be able to TX on anything that isn't a GMRS frequency, and you can't edit some of the per-channel settings like compander, descrambler, and the mostly useless DTMF squelch. But it'll save you a lot of time adding, or even just rearranging, your custom channels.
Haven't broken anything yet, since it seems it stores channel data mostly the same as other UV8-series radios. If things go sideways, you can always restore with the factory software. Use at your own risk; I don't believe there's much risk of bricking the device, but that is quite clearly a breach of warranty. 
Enjoy the radio! Mine also came before it was even scheduled to ship, and I loved it enough that I snagged a UV8H that came today that I've been running some experiments on with that driver.
 
As an aside, the same trick with works with the 805 and the KG-816 driver. One could also revert it back to a full UHF radio with VFO with that driver, but that would be violating the Part 95 approval.

Quite simple. I mentioned in another thread that there is a UV8H driver for CHIRP under development, found in their repository. You must install it in your CHIRP driver folder, or enable developer functions and load it under File > Load Module. 
Like most of the Wouxun drivers on CHIRP, the frequency limits for each band are editable. The hardware is capable of a wide range, but are sold locked down to the amateur bands for dealers for compliance in their respective countries. It seems this feature was requested as obviously some people travel/move to other countries, or purchase from an international dealer. I did read one report somewhere that a user purchased a radio direct from Wouxun and it came (very slowly, mind you) completely unlocked.
There are also a few 'dealer mode' applications floating around out there for the UV8D and UV9D, but they do not appear to work on the UV8H or 935G. 
But a nice trick for loading memory channels is using the same driver on the 935, and a similar trick for the 805G with the 816 driver. Doesn't seem to work for the 905G, as its parent model doesn't appear to be exported.

@MichaelLAX—yes and no. I see we're both commenting on similar topics in different threads and I apologize about the confusion... the 'trick' I'm mentioning here in this thread is solely for programming memory channels on the 935G and the 805G with CHIRP. There doesn't appear to be any way to unblock TX on non-GMRS frequencies on the 935. Locked up tight. 
the 805 is a bit simpler in how it's configured to operate on GMRS-only, and that's mostly down to the dedicated software only allowing drop-down selection.
 
The 935 is VHF and UHF, receive-only. You are correct, it is not a superhet, it's based on an RDA Microelectronics SoC. I believe the primary differences between the UV8 series that it's based on, and the UV9 series, is that the latter uses a superheterodyne receiver, and can demodulate AM on aviation band.

@MichaelLAX—yes and no. I see we're both commenting on similar topics in different threads and I apologize about the confusion... the 'trick' I'm mentioning here in this thread is solely for programming memory channels on the 935G and the 805G with CHIRP. There doesn't appear to be any way to unblock TX on non-GMRS frequencies on the 935. Locked up tight. 
the 805 is a bit simpler in how it's configured to operate on GMRS-only, and that's mostly down to the dedicated software only allowing drop-down selection.
 
The 935 is VHF and UHF, receive-only. You are correct, it is not a superhet, it's based on an RDA Microelectronics SoC. I believe the primary differences between the UV8 series that it's based on, and the UV9 series, is that the latter uses a superheterodyne receiver, and can demodulate AM on aviation band.

Quite simple. I mentioned in another thread that there is a UV8H driver for CHIRP under development, found in their repository. You must install it in your CHIRP driver folder, or enable developer functions and load it under File > Load Module. 
Like most of the Wouxun drivers on CHIRP, the frequency limits for each band are editable. The hardware is capable of a wide range, but are sold locked down to the amateur bands for dealers for compliance in their respective countries. It seems this feature was requested as obviously some people travel/move to other countries, or purchase from an international dealer. I did read one report somewhere that a user purchased a radio direct from Wouxun and it came (very slowly, mind you) completely unlocked.
There are also a few 'dealer mode' applications floating around out there for the UV8D and UV9D, but they do not appear to work on the UV8H or 935G. 
But a nice trick for loading memory channels is using the same driver on the 935, and a similar trick for the 805G with the 816 driver. Doesn't seem to work for the 905G, as its parent model doesn't appear to be exported.

Somewhat new GMRS user (at least in the world of repeaters) and new ham (but with a lengthy interest in radio in general) here, and I'm maybe wading into dangerous territory with this older thread, but I do have some thoughts, and that it's worth respecting both viewpoints here on repeater access and use of the few channels we have. 
As with any hobby, we want to find a use for our toys, and those uses can be varied. Sometimes it's easy to forget there are other sides of the hobby, or antagonize them.  Not everyone is using the radio just for the sake of using a radio
Over on the ham side, you've got all sorts of things. CW and DXing, ARES/RACES, social nets, AMSAT, packet radio, you name it. I don't know how much overlap there is on each of those niches, but there's plenty of spectrum to go around. Or at least enough. Yet there's still plenty of arguing by the "Sad Hams" on who's doing it right, which seems to be whatever they aren't.
OTOH, we're limited to 22 little channels here, and only 50W and repeaters on 8 of them (six, if you're like me and 'North of Line A'). We have to play nice. Thanks to the past posters who mentioned the roots of GMRS as CB Class-A and some business use, which explains why we get such a small slice of spectrum. Thankfully, we're not dictated on what we can use it for. But for better or worse, we share it with FRS, and bubble-packs (licensed or not), Garmin RHINO, legacy-license businesses, and the like. Clearly it's used as a 'utility' service, whatever that may be. Maybe to you it's shooting the breeze, and to others its something else, and that's the beauty of it, since by nature it's fairly limited in range.
I've seen complaints around the web of GMRS users coming across families yapping, traffic flaggers and the like, and, well, assuming they're licensed or using FRS, they have every right to be there. Even if they're not, they're there, and thankfully at least around here it doesn't sound anything like the chaos of CB. That's why we're limited to 50W and not 1500W. (also thankfully, in my area in the middle of Seattle, all I ever hear regularly are some carpenters on a nearby construction site, and a parent checking in on their child walking home from school.) Yes, its frustrating to hear kids screaming on Channel 1 day and night, but the disdain should be towards discourteous users, rather than all utility users.
Someone earlier mentioned communication while kayaking, and similarly I'm sure many here are off-roaders switching from other communication modes, and as another person replied, for them the radio is in support of another hobby, rather than the hobby itself. For me, I'm interested in radio as a hobby as well, but in a way I can use it for what I need. That's the type of thing I use it for—group and family outings and beyond-cell, or alternative-to-cell communications. To that end I like that GMRS is relatively quiet.Something I don't appreciate, when I have been using it for intra-party communications, is someone coming on a simplex channel and asking to strike up a conversation. No, I don't want to chat, I'm halfway down a mountain, trying to get ahold of our ride at the trailhead. Using tones appears to be a no-no in ham bands, but I definitely use them on GMRS simplex. 
Anyway. With all that said, I certainly understand @JCase's views on this, in wanting to limit all those other uses when you need wide coverage. In the Seattle area, we've got quite a few repeaters, including many unlisted ones in-city, that are private, for neighborhood/emergency use, or request permission and discourage rag-chewing. That's their choice—unlike in amateur, there's no (voluntary) governing body on choosing a channel, and they don't have rule over a specific frequency, but it's their equipment and they have every right to be picky over who can access it. Many of them are in areas with no cellular coverage, and I too would be a bit miffed if I couldn't get through to family member because of chitchat, or they turned their radio off because of such. And I appreciate those that have extended the offer to me with the expectation I'm not going to yak all day to strangers. Most of them are not 'for absolute emergency use only'—they want them to be used, but they also want them to be usable and not clogged up.
Again, 50W will only go so far in most places. It's their right, legally and in practice, to have a privately accessed system, and it's likely not going to step on others' systems. This is what I mean by GMRS being utility oriented. 
But in counterpoint, I also appreciate those like @WRKC935 that have invested the time, money and effort into building something for complete public access. Looking at the WWARA database, I'm astounded at how many repeaters are in the area. And scanning through, equally astounded at how many are dead quiet, or on further research strongly discourage use other than some specific purpose; again, that's their right as equipment owners, but it's nice that some owners have stepped up to provide a community forum. On those bands, where repeater slots are coordinated, both 2m and 70cm are pretty full with very wide coverage systems—there's no room to say "hey, I'll just start my own repeater!"
Again here, on GMRS, we have one repeater up on Tiger Mountain that covers much of the region, and it gets used for ragchewing, even if it's the same 5 or so guys, and that's great that it doesn't sit there silent. Agreed with @mbrun that if you're gong to cover that much ground with one frequency, it is a public service in a way. People have the technical know-how and resources to set up something like that make it more useful for everyone, not just radio junkies. Moreso than the amateur band, I do believe that, with cellular taking away a lot of the user base and the growth of different wireless data modes, GMRS is at use-it-or-lose-it risk.
I do hope this doesn't come off as the radio police (or alternately, too wishy-washy). I try not to be pedantic, since there's too much arguing over Part 95 or when to ID and things like that. I just think that we occupy a special niche—restricted in equipment, power, and frequencies, but not in coordinating through a regulating body; we're neither CB nor amateur—but it's small, and we need to make everyone happy. You can have a small private repeater for your neighborhood or a public one for your whole county, but be understanding of other uses, even the mom calling kids in for dinner on simplex.
And to @Doctnj the radio world is fun, and there's lots to play with and many ways to put it into good use. I've long been an audio and phone tinkerer, and I thank MacJack on here for suggesting I get my ham ticket, since I learned in studying for it that there's a lot more to that than the quite literally old boys' club, and room to experiment with things you can bring back to GMRS. No reason to be one or the other!

Michael, thanks for the detailed reply. I think I misunderstood your original post as when you said you understood the purpose of group calling that you had accomplished it somehow. (as an aside, I feel similarly about devices with functions I haven't figured out or found a purpose for—I have to figure it out and it feels like a waste of capacity if I can't use it) 
It looks like we've done the same experiments (on my end with the 905 and 935) and come to similar dead ends. The 905 seems to want to decode something; but sometimes that something is dialing '1' and getting back '111111'. Playing with a few custom channels programmed with DTMF squelch and PTT-ID haven't worked at all. The closest I've gotten, I think I mentioned, is programming each with PTT ID and getting them to start screaming the siren. Not quite the call tone I was looking for. 
I think you're right, there's some functionality that's been lost in the firmware. The programming software for the parent models (KG-978, UV8H) looks mostly identical save for fewer button options, so I'm wondering if they do work satisfactorily on the LMR/amateur models. It is strange though that in BTWR's own authored manuals, they mention the function in passing without really describing how to implement it. My guess is that they came that way from the factory and know it's not functional (and most users won't bother), but didn't want to have some mystery setting go unmentioned in the manual.
I'd be interested to know what Wouxun really means by 'calling' specifically, and am guessing some sort of paging, unlike the private calling function on DMR. Though I could see how one could setup a 'dispatch channel' set to DTMF squelch, where individual stations could be called from a console. But again, that's much more of a business band feature than of much use on our few channels! 
And now I'm running a bit long, but thanks again for sharing your experience with it!

Yep, definitely order ASAP and get on the backorder queue. I put my order in last month and it actually shipped a bit early than the estimated restock date, and I got it yesterday. Ended up buying the parent amateur model KG-UV8H, since a lot of the features I think will be much more useful on ham radio. May or may not keep the 935 if I can get the 8H to go up to GMRS frequencies. Either way, it's a fantastic little device. I also picked up the 805 for a family member that finds the others a bit bulky and while that's a great radio too, the 935 blows it out of the water on features.
There's someone currently working on porting the KG-UV8D CHIRP driver to the 8H, and I tested it out with the 935. It's still a work in progress and likely won't be able to edit things specific to the 935 (different programmable keys, WX radio, etc) but it did let me add GMRS, 2m and 60cm channels.
Also agreed on the accessory port trapdoor. It's also very easy to misplace. I wish they'd gone with something similar to Motorola's like Baofeng did with their waterproof models, but I suspect there's probably some intellectual property issues there. I intend to use mine out of doors while hiking or MTBing  with an earpiece (so as not to disturb other trail users) and it's a shame the water rating goes out the window in that setup.

Curious how you set up a calling function—that's something I'm particularly interested in. I know this is not FRS and we are serious radio operators here (?), but that would be incredibly useful to me, absent the usual 'call' button bubble-pack radios usually sport. In my usage, there is a member or two of my calling party that will turn the volume down inadvertently or stuff the HT in a bag, and being able to hail them short of screaming over the air or kerchunking with the roger beep on would be very useful.
All I've been able to do so far is set off the SOS alarm on the 905 by some combination of random DTMF presses whose sequence escapes me.
 
 

From what I understand with these Chinese radios, the DTMF is actually (well, intended to be) used for paging and selective calling, like Motorola Quik-Call. I believe some older Kenwood systems used DTMF, and Wikipedia has a short article section on it. I just haven't been able to figure out in the least how to get it to work between two different Baofeng models and two Wouxun models. The 905 seems to be able to decode and display DTMF on screen but doesn't emit any type of page tone. Long-pressing PF1 makes it dial whatever is in CALL ID1 followed by the ID-EDIT field, it seems. The other radios don't do anything with it. Can't figure out what the Baofengs send when PTT-ID is switched on... The 905 has the ability to use DTMF squelch instead or in conjunction with tones, which has interesting (if useless) possibilities.
I'll be interested to play with this more when my 935 comes in tomorrow, though the manual (and the parent model UV8H manual, as well as other Wouxun manuals) are clear as mud on it. So far, all I've been able to do is set off the alarm with a bunch of random key presses from a Baofeng.
All that said, in contrast to what wayoverthere said, I'd politely disagree and guess this is more to do with vestiges of a LMR dispatch system than autopatch and repeater control of ham systems. PTT-ID is very useful with dispatch software to identify a unit, but at least on analog in the US, MDC1200 became the standard. Maybe DTMF paging is still widespread in China?
 
As an aside to further readers: CHECK RPT15'S FREQUENCIES. For some reason one of them is programmed off-channel to 46x.500 out of the box—don't remember if it was TX or RX, but I had a heck of a time trying to hit my local repeater until I dug into the program and saw. Creating a new config file in the software doesn't have this problem, it seems it was just limited to what was flashed to the HT itself.

The Wouxun KG-UV9P was mentioned, and I wanted to echo some of their other offerings. No GPS, but some of their models are pretty rugged for the price with a claimed IP66 rating. the KG-UV8 and 9 series seem to be TOTL from US distributors. the UV9 series also receives AM as well. 
 But what's mostly of use to you is that there is some software floating around out there that unlocks the frequency limits if you do some searching. CHIRP may also, but don't quote me on that—I don't have a sold-as-a-ham-radio Wouxun (but the unlocker could read/write to my 805G, I just don't know what the hardware is capable of). That would give you UHF/VHF/MURS/GMRS capabilities at least.
 

I'd give it a shot again with at least one transceiver out-of-doors. You should be getting some reasonable range. 
I'm in a very urban area and have no problem hitting and being heard on some of the in-town repeaters with the 905 and stock antenna. And I'm on the ground floor of a aluminum-clad apartment that is a black hole for cell reception. Up on the 6th floor roof deck, I easily pick up a few repeaters 20+ miles away. 
 
@DeoVindice, the 805 and 905 are both superhet so there should be good reception. I find that indoors with mine, said 20+ mile, 50W repeater comes in just fine, but nobody can hear me. SO OP should at least be getting some reception. I'm guessing it's on the architecture of one or both locations. An apartment even up to 6 stories or so could be wood-frame construction, but a commercial building at that height almost certainly has more steel in it, either structurally or with interior studs and cladding.
That said, envious of your commercial radio collection—very tempting to drop the bucks on one of those FPP Motorolas eBay keeps wanting me to see, but the Wouxun are working fine for me. Hope the OP gets better results in different conditions.

I'm with you, nearly lifelong Mac user and avoid anything Windows related. But I have a few niche applications that require it, and they're pretty lightweight so I don't need a full BootCamp install. 
But no need to buy a whole new computer. VMware Fusion Player works if you have Catalina, but I don't (long story short, I'll lose a lot of compatibility if I update), and Oracle VMBox is also free and runs Win10 just fine. With either, just install the software, download a copy of Windows, and install it while telling it you don't have a product key. 
Alternately, if you have a public library nearby, chances are they also use virtual machines that wipe themselves clean after use, and sometimes will allow software installs. I've had no issues doing that at my local branch. 
 
As for a cable, FTDI chipset based ones are the way to go (Wouxun's own, for example) but I have the Retevis that seems to be an authentic Prolific chip. (Believe me, I know, I had one heck of a headache connecting a serial printer through a counterfeit one once.)

And subsequently, if you want to use a different repeater with different access tones, you must reprogram the channel and can't add a new one.