SteveShannon

Exactly!  The rules limit certain aspects of the use, but leave it up to us to imagine how we might benefit from it.  

Exactly what I meant by intercom.

Ahh... bummer. 😛 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I guess you can tell what was on my mind while typing that. 
 
It's been fixed. 

There is no requirement that a GMRS repeater owner list their repeater information here on this website, or any other website. Why get fixated on finding out information that that repeater owner has not made public? Who cares??? What if the owner only puts it on the air when he knows that he will need to use it himself to communicate with those he has already shared the information with? I agree with @OffRoaderX, go outside and get some fresh air and sunshine. I would also recommend touching some grass as well. Just don't bring your radio with you!

Imagine I will.
Let’s say you have a home and down the hill from this home you have a shop. You and the wife would like to have the ability to call each other on the radio however the shop is a big metal faraday cage of a building and your HT don’t make it. Also she prefers to just have coms with you and isn’t really into additional chatter. You set up external yagi antennas between the two buildings to remedy the metal building issue and point them to each other. Now you set up two mobile radios, one at the shop and one at the house and set them for 15 watts or less on output and program them for simplex on one of the 467 MHz main channels which you are allowed to do as a fixed station. Set some tones if you like, just make sure you aren’t setting them for a local repeater input tone. You now have yourself a pair of fixed stations with less chance of outside interference where you two can communicate. “Hey you better come up to the house and clean up. Your brother and sister-in-law are gonna be here for dinner in an hour. Over” 😀

@SteveShannon Ah, beans. That's what I figured but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something simple. Thanks for your help!
@Socalgmrs Interesting, I'll have to read up on that. What's not accurate about the SWR on a handheld and would they typically read high or low on an HT? I got the meter just make sure I didn't have anything Obviously Wrong (like low/no wattage or abnormally high SWR) even if it wasn't particularly accurate. 
Regarding the repeater, I'm about 25 miles out from it. Listening with a second radio, the repeater acts like like someone kerchunked it (I think that's the term). I'm not sure I have clear line of sight to the tower so I figured there's just too many obstructions for a 5W handheld to deal with. A little disappointing but I'm not too concerned. Gives me an excuse to build a base station sometime down the road.

Not exactly sure it'll help.  I'm in a very noisy area.  Lot of DMR chirping in.  And the high gain antenna isn't helping.  The KG1000G+ isn't helping out with knocking down the noise with it's better selectivity as I had hoped.  The radio might end up in my truck and put the XS20G back.  I'll have to see how the wife feels about it since it's primarily in her work space all day.  Even with the tones on the DMR chirps through for a burst here and there and she's not happy about it.  With the old radio it happened, but it's happening more with the 1000.
 
Time will tell.  Plus I need to hunt down that DMR source and see what the heck it is and if they are above board or not.

Just thrown on a fold down secretary desk.  No real organization to it.  Just made it fit.  The new power supply and radio are bigger than the old so it's more cramped.  The radio is just on it's mobile mount laying on the table, it has the angle adapter on the display as it comes from the factory.

I know.  The XS20G had no fan, and is sealed IP66.  Ya, it's 20 watts, I got a good one that does 26 watts.  Never had an overheating issue and at times I blab.

I went from unlicensed to AE in one session, like Steve, and was issued a 2X2 callsign as well.
Also, this is how the Sequential Call Sign System is currently structured, according to the FCC. https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service/amateur-call-sign-systems

So how about telling the rest of us what the problem was so the members of the forum can learn as well?

Based on GrouserPad’s experience that’s not uncommon, unfortunately.  There’s no reason to doubt your (or his) experience.  TD H3s apparently arrive dead or die shortly after.  Don’t waste time double checking yourself. Send it back, preferably for a different radio.
You’re fine starting another thread but you would have been okay piggybacking on GrouserPad’s thread.
Welcome to the forum!

The definition of an open repeater is one that has been deemed so by the owner. GMRS repeaters are privately owned. You don’t have the right to list them, only the owner does. Furthermore a repeater having a matching output does not make it open, in fact programming the output (receive) isn’t even need to operate a repeater or hear it. 

Based on GrouserPad’s experience that’s not uncommon, unfortunately.  There’s no reason to doubt your (or his) experience.  TD H3s apparently arrive dead or die shortly after.  Don’t waste time double checking yourself. Send it back, preferably for a different radio.
You’re fine starting another thread but you would have been okay piggybacking on GrouserPad’s thread.
Welcome to the forum!

You had me at “When I got my first pair of radios,” but the ending was great!

Your attic antenna set up is almost exactly the same as mine. Ours is in our third story attic. I intended on replacing it with an external. But after doing some testing and realizing our topography meant an external antenna was not going to give us much benefit, I just stayed with the Midland / Pizza sheet set up. Low tech for sure, but it does exactly what we need it to do.  

I have a wonderful wife and I honestly wouldn’t want to dwell on life without her beside me. When I went back to college at 32, she worked two jobs to take care of me and our kids without ever complaining. Now that she’s in a wheelchair with MS she still never complains. I know that not everyone is so fortunate but I’m delighted for @LeoG. It appears he has a good one. 

It can be a frustrating thing to not have a clear cause and effect. It certainly could simply be group of failures caused by a bad batch of components. 

It will be paired with my current Comet 712EFC, so 9.8dBi gain.  60 feet of M&P Hyperflex 13 and 24 feet of Heliax 1/2" hardline past the lightning arrestor.  Eventually I'll get that same antenna on my repeater.  I've only had it for a year now.

<sarcasm>Not really 😁</sarcasm >

Picked up the KG 1000G Plus to use as my base station to complement the repeater I have at my shop.  The repeater makes it fine into the house but sometimes the house has a hard time getting through the trees to the shop repeater.  Going from 20 to 50 watts is only a bit more than 3dB, but it seems to work from the repeater to the house.
I had already setup the CPS with my channels and only needed to read the radio and write back.  The CPS doesn't cover the A,B,C,D buttons so I'll have to do those manually.  Like the power button in that you don't need a long press to turn it on.  People complain about the screen brightness.  Not exactly screaming bright, but it's in a lighted shop and not in a dark vehicle.  Since I already have a KG XS20G I'm already pretty familiar in the way it should work.
Wife doesn't know yet.  I'll probably install it after she goes to bed and she'll see the new radio when she gets up.  LOL.  Hoping it might get rid of some of the off center DMR that I have in my area.  The XS20G lets it right through with the SOC receiver.  Hoping the Super Het might limit or eliminate it.
 

This; just ignore it.

I have a wonderful wife and I honestly wouldn’t want to dwell on life without her beside me. When I went back to college at 32, she worked two jobs to take care of me and our kids without ever complaining. Now that she’s in a wheelchair with MS she still never complains. I know that not everyone is so fortunate but I’m delighted for @LeoG. It appears he has a good one. 

And also there is the fact that dogs are shit producers.