(I’ve even seen shows where the actors are using UV-5Rs, ha!)
I bet those 900MHz radios do so well in part because of the antennas… A 1/4 wave at that frequency is still very portable, and that’s pretty awesome.
For all the hype around VHF, I’ve only noticed it working better on a select few occasions. I really thought it was going to blow UHF away. I suppose there have to be some instances where it does, but I sure haven’t found them. Not even outdoors. If anything, my FRS radios had caused me to go “wow, it will really work here this well?”. I guess that’s why I am so curious about the DTR/DLRs at this point.
I have dropped T600s and T480s on accident many times, among other things. A T480 fell into a stream we were fly fishing in (That line is IP54 rated, not IP67) and has worked with no issue in the past year since. They can take quite a beating. That said, I have only rarely used a headset with them. Now when I look at something like an RMU or RMM series, there are solid chunks of metal under that outer shell. I don’t doubt that those will take more abuse. But for the target audience, these things hold up impressively well.