After reading the “specs” on that Retevis HT, I meant to mention... Be careful with doing things like configuring FRS/GMRS or MURS on that radio. Technically it’s ILLEGAL. I had a word on this in a previous posting... https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3926299/posts?page=169#169
The thing to remember with these radios is that what you “can” do isn’t necessarily what you “should” do. A lot of people bought Baofengs for their kids...because they’re CHEAP and relatively powerful... turned them loose and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!... because no matter WHERE the kid went, the parent could reach the kid. THEN came the visit from the FCC, because the parents didn’t know ANYTHING about the radios, and they just left them programmed from the factory and transmitted on unauthorized freqs. Unless one “plays by the rules”, it’s advisable to do everything to NOT garner attention.... which generally means to keep power outputs as low as possible on frequencies which aren’t liable to get any attention... such as MURS. It’s VERY easy to irritate the HAM community. Just last week, “somebody” in my AO ... for some reason... transmitted AFSK modulated data through a known repeater. Within minutes, I saw chatter about it on an e-mail group that I’m part of for packet radio. They were very, VERY much interested in knowing WHO did this. Whoever it was only transmitted twice, over a few minutes. They weren’t heard after that. However, if they had kept it up for several minutes... or maybe a little longer... these same guys would FIND them and quite happily turn them over to the FCC. So IF we’re going to play the “unlicensed game”, low power and NOT garnering undue attention is the goal. :-)
I was actually planning on using GMRS on our property and just paid the $70 for the license. I'm not getting any younger but still have a lot of trees to cut down to clear land and for firewood so I was going to use it for emergency purposes. "Help, I've fallen(a tree on me) and I can't get up."
Most certified GMRS radios probably wouldn't reach every inch of the property as we have terrain here and lots of trees(to cut down).
We're way out in the boonies and I doubt anyone else within range would even be on a GMRS, except maybe on the weekends. A lot of pieces of land out here are owned by people from out of town. They use them for recreational purposes, hunting, shooting, riding around the dirt roads on four wheelers etc. I don't go into the woods much on the weekends and never to cut trees. The properties on each side of me are owned by out of towners. They're coming down for R&R so I'm not going to make them listen to a chain saw all day.
We are up against the National Forest though and I don't know if the forest rangers monitor GMRS or not but I'm not too worried about it. Been here ten years and seen a forest ranger go by once or twice. Like I said, it's mostly for emergency purposes. We won't be having long conversations on them. I do have a pair of cheap little gmrs/frs radios. I could keep one with me and ditch the Baofeng if someone shows up. Whadya mean? This is my radio. Just a little toy and it's certified. One use I have for them here is to mark the contour of the property at different intervals but that will be my and my son within line of site, few hundred feet max so the little radios will do that. The Baofeng would be to keep one in the house near a window and another I'd carry with me. If the tractor breaks down at the bottom of the hill near the road, I'd say drive down here and get me. I have atherosclerosis aka hardening of the veins and cannot walk up that hill or I could but I'd have to take a lot of sit down breaks. If I run out of diesel in the back corner, I'd tell the boy to throw the fuel can in the cart and bring it to me. Then of course if I get injured and can't walk. All doubtful but I'm getting cautious as I get older, especially with the atherosclerosis.