Just catching up on older threads here.
I have found that dual-watch/dual-receive is OK-ish, but a lot of consumer ham radios don't offer something I find even more important - Zones. Too many ham repeaters out there run in full CSQ, or CSQ-on-RX, and as a result, you're going to get a lot of hash that will stop scan on a channel that is actually nowhere near you, when you have hundreds of channels programmed all in one list. I have tried multiple times to deal with it with a consumer ham mobile, because I wanted Yaesu's Fusion C4FM digital functionality, but I have found this masssive oversight on the part of the radio industry to be an absolute deal-breaker.
My solution to having dual receive on VHF and UHF, and actually having zones, is to use two commercial mobile radios. Afer much trial and error over many years, I have settled nicely into a pair of Kenwoods from different lines. UHF is a TK-5820, VHF is a TK-7180. The 5820 is a dual-mode radio which does FM analog as well as P25 digital, while the TK-7180 is FM analog-only. Both radio faceplates look nearly identical, and use the same KRK-10 remote-mounting kit, where I have both heads stacked on a swivel trunnion mount, in the overhead center console area. Yes, the mic cords hang like a big rig, in my sedan. This is what I'll be staying with from here on out. The only exception to this will be if I can source a TK-5720 to replace the TK-7180 with, as I'd like to also have P25 functionality on VHF, but that's not an absolute requirement, and TK-5720's seem to be a lot more scarce on the used market than TK-5820's were. The Kenwood NX-700 and NX-800 are the same radio as the TK-5720/5820, except that the digital protocol is Kenwood NXDN (NexEdge)/ICOM iDas digital. I previously had an NX-700, and the only NXDN Skywarn repeater I have ever heard of, in Ashland County Ohio, seemed to have that functionality removed when I chased there back in June. I don't see NXDN picking up in popularity moving forward, so it's a dead issue as far as Skywarn is concerned. The biggest player will always be FM analog wideband, with DMR Tier II (MotoTRBO Conventional), Yaesu System Fusion I/II C4FM, DSTAR, and APCO P25 Conventional being the digital players mostly associated with reporting severe weather.
I may look into a Connect Systems CS800D mobile in the future, as it's a commercial radio that is dual band, has a remote-mountable head, and has DMR Tier II digital, and add it to the control head stack. The only real hangup about commerical mobile radios is the issue of programming them. There is no FPP unless it's an expensive option. No VFO operation. Everything is carried out through the software and a programming cable. While many ham radios are going this direction, especially with the excellent RT Systems software and cables, the tradeoff for commercial radios can sometimes be more than what some people are willing to deal with. The only real ways to get the programming software for these commercial radios are either to buy the software packages from the manufacturer ($80-$500 from Kenwood, up to over $2000 from some companies like Harris), to find them for free on the internet from pirates, to know a guy who'll hook you up either for free or at a price, or to buy them for $25 on a flash drive from shady techs on Ebay.
Another major issue I've seen with the consumer ham radio market is space constraints of modern vehicles, and the elimination of the middle price point. Modern cars no longer feature mounting space under the center dash, or center console areas clear of stupid stuff, like 5 cubbyholes for no reason, 4 cupholders in the front seat, or a floor-mounted shifter for an automatic slushbox of all things. The radio companies know this is the case. If you look at Yaesu four years ago, they offered two different monoband dash-mount-only radios in the form of the FTM-3200DR and FTM-3207DR, at a low price point of $120, the mid-size FTM-100DR that featured a mid-size remote-mountable head at $300, and their top of the line FTM-400DR that offered a mid-size body and large remote-mounted head at $450. This year, that has changed. Your choices are now the mid-size FTM-7250DR dual bander in a dash-mount-only configuration for $250, the mid-size body & head remote-mountable FTM-300DR at a whopping $530, and the same FTM-400DR they offered four years ago for $450, except it's now $650. For the money, you could get a matched pair of Kenwood TK-7180/TK-8180 mobiles, a pair of KRK-10 remote head kits, a pair of aftermarket DTMF microphones, a pair of NMO 3/4" hole mounts with 17' coax pre-terminated with PL259's, a UHF 1/4 wave NMO antenna, a VHF 1/4 wave NMO antenna, a programming cable, and the programming software (either KPG-89D or SJ-180 flavors) on a flash drive on Ebay for like $500-$550, if you know how to hunt Ebay sales. You could now have a maxed-out commercial setup including every option you could want, including the software and antennas, for less than the price of Yaesu's mid-tier mobile radio alone, and that radio isn't going to include things like a remote head cable longer than 5 feet, the speaker will be on the body of the radio rather than the head which will require an extension speaker cost of $20-$50, and won't include the mic extension cable at all. Some of these radio companies also do highly dishonest things, like selling a radio that can really only be used as a remote mount radio, but they don't include the bracket to mount the remote head, while they'll happily sell you one for $65 from their web store. I can't remember which model I saw that had this as a caveat, but one model out there includes neither the radio body mounting bracket, nor the power cord, as a standard feature. They are options.
