It's a Dahua DVR with analog cameras. I have my firewall set so the DVR can only access the push notification server and my SMTP server.

Mine runs locally on the DVR. I wouldn't trust any cloud service with my video.

My old setup only had normal motion detection. I couldn't enable alerts with that because it would go off all night from the bugs swarming the IR LEDs on the cameras.

Sure, there are good uses.

I use the RADE V1 codec in FreeDV. It is an AI vocoder that packs high quality audio into 1500 Hz of bandwidth. It sounds much better than traditional codecs like AMBE or Codec 2.

Another one I use is AI motion detection for my security cameras. It recognises a vehicle or a person and significantly reduces the number of false alerts.

Hopefully they don't try to take over the band. They are currently only authorized to use 430 MHz for emergency use and only for 24 hours.

That's just the bad user interface design you see on a lot of radios.

If you can save up a little bit more money, you could get a Yaesu FT-60. They are currently on sale for $140 through the end of January. It's an older model, but it performs much better that a cheap Chinese HT.

You can have separate banks for each city. That way you can scan just the repeaters for the city you are in. I have a radio with 1000 channels and no memory banks. I have to hook it up to the computer and reprogram it whenever I go to a different area.

On the Yaesu radios that support memory banks, you don't have to use them. You can put the same channel in multiple banks or put every channel in one bank.

That's a nice radio. It has memory banks, which are essential for managing the 1000 channels it holds. For some reason, Yaesu stopped putting memory banks in their newer radios. The US version is tri band, which is nice if you have any 1.25m repeaters nearby. The batteries are a bit expensive though.

That's a good signal for an HT. Were you using a directional antenna?

Make sure auto slant is checked in QSSTV. It will help with the skewing.

You don't need any special equipment. A baofeng or RTL-SDR will work fine. The stock antenna on a baofeng will pick up the ISS on a high elevation pass if you hold it sideways. A handheld yagi can be built from some scraps of wire and wood.