Considering above, and the fact that you’ll still encounter all sorts of needs for frequencies when you’re traveling, owning and mastering a dual band ham type HT might be the best choice, but doing so is expensive and a hassle. Example: When we got the info sheet from Valhalla Lodge in Canada, right there on the sheet they had their commercial frequency and recommended the client bring a radio for that channel. It is not a freq you get in an FR/GMRS radio, so I brought one of our ham sets up there and it worked perfectly for the situation. Another person up there also had a ham set with all frequencies programmed in.

Gloor, what’s ironic about FRS/GMRS performance is that if they sold those radios with a removable antenna, the aftermarket would step in with better quality and higher gain antennas that could easily bump up performance. But the FCC regs for how the radios are made require the antenna to be fixed. Modders try to get around this, but it’s tough. I’d suggest to BCA that they make their antenna lugs on the circuit board easily worked with, so modders can install a removable antenna connector. Them making the circuit board have that capability, but not shouting it out, would be legal as far as I can tell from reading up on the regs.

Above is what many of the consumer ham radio makers do. They provide solder on the radio circuit board that can be cut to “open” the radio so it becomes useful for a full range of VHF and UHF frequencies. So long as they sell the radio with the full range disabled and the solder intacts, it’s legal. There is a brisk aftermarket in radio mods to “open” these radios. You can send them away to experts, or find instructions on the web if you’re handy with a soldering iron. I’ve heard some of the radios might open with a keypad code as well. And so on.