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.
I don’t recall the current permitted specs for GMRS... but I DO remember the last time I looked at them, I thought that IF a person had a decent antenna at 50 to 100 feet above the rest of the terrain, that you could quite possibly cover 10 miles or more. Also... I “think” the GMRS license fee recently came down to $35.
One thing about GMRS is that it operates entirely well within the UHF (70cm) freq range. It’s a LOT more susceptible to weather... fog, mixed precipitation, snow... etc.
But I understand that a lot of people get GOOD service from GMRS, and there are some nice radios being sold which are type certified for GMRS. I’m sure you’ll get some level of usefulness out of it. :-)