WRPE755

I know you are not looking for a base station, but I have a $19 Midland mag mount antenna that I use with my UV9G. At home I have it going out through a window onto a metal plate. In the car I just stick it on top of my car. A simple $2 adapter makes for an easy connection. The antenna makes quite a difference when it comes to range: repeaters that my regular antenna can not touch are easy with the mag  mount. A cheap radio plus a cheap antenna = a base station, a mobile station, and a still usable HT. That’s a lot of utility for just a little bit of cash.
i haven’t had any fitment troubles with the three antennas I have tried out, but I have heard that there can be issues. There are a couple of YouTube videos out there and the “sandpaper around a pencil” approach looks like a winner.

I know this is an old thread, but just in case someone is still reading it:
- there are a LOT of MURS radios out there now. Radioddity has a good one that goes for around $30
- as with any 2 watt vhf radio, any discussion of range is meaningless. The range of a MURS HT is somewhere between 1/10 of a mile and 10-12 miles. It all depends on a multitude of factors. But my personal experience is that the rubber ducky antennas are good for about 1-2 miles over water, up 3 miles with external mag mount antennas. 
- being able to use external mag mount antennas makes MURS far better than FRS when it comes to vehicle to vehicle communication. It is great for maintaining group comms when traveling in a “pack”. 

WRQE264 I own the same radio an I haven’t had the courage to try the belt clip yet. Yes it’s strange but the radio is a great starter radio for the price an so far I’ve overlooked the clip. If you get a decent replacement let me know. 
I have the extended antenna the Nagora 771G and I’d rather not use the current clip. Good luck. 
bob - WRPL668

What I’m going to do is ask for people in my area either ham or GMRS to get together where I live. Got nothing to loose. 
In general discussion. 
Bobthej03 I found three in my area. Two In Middletown an one in Keyport. Again wish me luck. 
bob the hopeful. 

A word about tone settings in CHIRP. Tone means the transmitter transmits the selected tone when the PTT is activated. TQSL means the transmitter transmits the selected tone and the receiver listens for a tone to operate. Unless the listing for the repeater lists both a transmit and receive tone, you should always select TONE and not TQSL.

I have done that too. Works well. 

I suppose that workaround is true for any radio.
For me purchasing a $30 HT with tone scanning solved that problem!

My radio actually does weird things like that too. I tell it to display the channel name, but it displays the frequency. It doesn't seem to "take" until the second time I change the setting. I've found that I have to make the change from the front panel twice, too, because whatever I do in the software doesn't work correctly when writing to the radio. Basically, the only place it's been an issue is with the second VFO.
I typically use that VFO to monitor a local ham repeater, so if I forget to reset it after powering down the radio, the only thing that happens is that I don't get to hear that repeater.

Din’t  read this if you aren’t a rookie! I don’t want to be sued for boring anyone to death! 
I have noted that there are a lot of people like me out there. I have been using GMRS HTs for a couple of years, but am now getting a bit more into the hobby. For those other newbies out there, this is an account of setting up my DB-20g.
The physical set up was easy. I have a mag mount antenna outside my window, so I hooked it up to the radio. Next I plugged the radio into my Jackery power station. Rather to my surprise it started right up. I then tested it by transmitting on one of my HTs. The radio received just fine. But when I tried to transmit nothing happened. Sigh. It came with CTSS codes installed on all channels. No problem. I booted my computer and downloaded the CPS. After unzipping the files I hooked up the included programming cable. Once again, everything worked fine. The software loaded and ran, no problems, and it detected the correct com port. Having used CHIRP, the software wasn’t hard to figure out. Let’s face it: GMRS makes it easy. I set up my preferences, programmed in my local repeaters of choice, and wrote it all to the radio. No issues. I put the mic back on and asked for a radio check on my favorite repeater, located 25-30 miles away. I got a report back right away. Not bad for a 15 watt radio and a cheap dual band mag mount antenna! Everything was nice and clear. All in all, a very easy install. Far easier than I expected. 
So now  I need to set up my usual receive only frequencies: Marine VHF, MURS, several local ham repeaters. And figure out how to set up channel B! The manual is now 27 pages, and generally useful, but I can’t figure out how to set channel B up. Oh well, something to work on!
I would like to thank all of those who recommended the DB20g to me. It certainly does what I need it to do. It used very little power, and runs cool to the touch. I like that I can choose any of the repeater frequencies I want, unlike my HTs, which only let me  choose from banks of frequencies. I wish that CHIRP worked with it, as inputting all of the programming data was a minor annoyance, but other than that I am happy with my new radio. 

Yes, I know 2 people that got 'bad' DB25G radios.  IIRC they could not program them correctly but I dont remember exactly so I txt'd one of them to confirm. In both cases they sent them back and had them replaced with ones that actually work.  This was a few months ago so I would hope/guess that they are no longer shipping bad units.
Edit/Update:  Turns out it was 3 people that got bad units, and the issue was as you described, not being able to additional repeater channels and also not being able to do a factory reset.  All got replacement units that worked, but it was a PITA.  Have not been able to confirm if bad units are still being shipped.

I did see in the reviews mention of it being repeater capable, and "30 channel" is usually (but not always) a hint as well. 22 simplex+8 repeater, and all...

I am not certain that we need a travel channel. Most of the tasks we used to use CBs for (traffic checks, speed traps, open gas stations, calling for emergency assistance, etc) are performed far more efficiently by our cell phones. GMRS is fantastic when traveling with a group of other cars, and I enjoy being able to gab with people on our local repeaters, but CBs died because they no longer filled a need. I don’t see how GMRS radios are any different in that regard.
Having said that I still scan through the channels while driving. I hear plenty of other people talking while on the road, so perhaps I am just missing something!

I know this is an old topic, but perhaps someone might be still interested in it….
obviously no bubble pack FRS HT is going to be repeater compatible, by definition. But as a GMRS license covers the whole family, I can see where non-tech family members would like an easy to use radio that is still repeater capable. When I faced that issue, I bought a couple of Retevis RB26s. Before we go someplace I program it with any relevant repeaters, and then I put a  label on the radio listing whatever channels we are going to be using. The RB26s have no screen, you just push a button and a voice tells you what channel you’re in.  Then I tell the user “keep it on channel 16. If you can’t get in touch with me, try channel 26” (just an example). The user doesn’t even have to know what a repeater is, they can still utilize it. 
(I also have our call sign and proper radio etiquette on a card taped to the radio. I go over it with everyone, and practice it, but they tend to forget.)