Only 5 watts? No repeater capability on the 8 main channels (15-22)? It's a nice start, but they need to keep going.
The 5 watts, into a quarter wave antenna, on the 7 interstital channels that are shared between the FRS & GMRS would help keep it within the rules limiting the ERP to 5 watts on those channels. That's understandable. However, if a user can attach any antenna, including collinear gain types in place of a quarter wave, the ERP could be exceeded.
But, they need to increase that power output several times (at least 5x, and preferably 8-10x) for the GMRS only channels, and add repeater capability to them, to really make this an attractive radio to GMRS licensees.
I'd also like to see receive-only capability for the FRS channels 8-14, with no possibility of modifing it to transmit on them. Firmware could handle this, as well as the different power levels for the interstital and main channels.
Add in a seperate UHF only scanning receiver, covering 450-512MHz (minimum), 400-512 MHz or 380-512 MHz, with analog and digital, conventional and trunking capabilities, and that's what I want. (Uniden did something like this in Australia awhile back, with a radio for the UHF CB service there, that included a 400-512 MHz scanner, although it didn't include digital or trunking. The UH-015SX.)
I'd also like to see a MURS mobile, that includes a seperate 151-174 MHz (minimum) or 108-174 MHz analog/digital, conventional/trunking scanning receiver.
John
WPXJ-598
Peoria, AZ