Quoted: Another radio type available to the public seldom mentioned on this forum is the Marine  Band radio.  A base unit with whip antenna can reach ranges to 25 miles, however the handhelds are limited in range to about 5-10 miles.  Though not licensed any more, there is a protocol and the hailing channel/emerency channel monitored as well as certain other channels reserved for commerical use etc.

I'd say that unless you like breaking FCC regs, stay away from marine radio.  Just because there is not a licence for VHF freqs while on water, does not mean it's a CB.  It is still a violation to use them on land unless licenced as a base station.

Also some marine freqs are also used/issued in areas away from waterways by various public safety agencies.  They might not like you using their freq....

Quoted: GRMS across a dead nutz flat open desert without a piece of metal in the entire valley except fourteen trucks and a few hundred pounds of lost gold nuggets gets a good mile to two miles. CB radio is much better than that and will do four or five but that takes good terrain and antennas. With a ham radio you're talking 50 to 65 watts and very good quality antennas with some good gain - as the smaller wavelenghts need smaller antennas to get going. That 50 watt radio with a 6 dB top-of-the-line antenna is like it's transmitting 200 watts worth of power.

Sounds like you are compairing apples to treelimbs.  Were you using UHF mobiles for your GMRS radios?  Were you using 5bg gain antennas (that are smaller than a 3db VHF antenna)?

Compairing a UHF handheld to a VHF mobile does not sound very fair  

Quoted: Quoted: Another radio type available to the public seldom mentioned on this forum is the Marine  Band radio.  A base unit with whip antenna can reach ranges to 25 miles, however the handhelds are limited in range to about 5-10 miles.  Though not licensed any more, there is a protocol and the hailing channel/emerency channel monitored as well as certain other channels reserved for commerical use etc. I'd say that unless you like breaking FCC regs, stay away from marine radio.  Just because there is not a licence for VHF freqs while on water, does not mean it's a CB.  It is still a violation to use them on land unless licenced as a base station. Also some marine freqs are also used/issued in areas away from waterways by various public safety agencies.  They might not like you using their freq....

Exactly! I don't know much about radios in general but I do know about marine radio use. You can't even use them in your boat while your sitting on the trailer next to water. I have seen a few Coast Guard smack downs because of lesser misuse.

Just wanted to reiterate to everyone here, that you should look elsewhere for any radio minue the marine radio for any reason, other than installing one on your boat, for on water use only.