I knew you guys were out there... sweet. Ok... just some basic items that I need to clear up because I purchased several radios at once and had to learn all of them and it got crazy.
On the 2900 my first question is.... of the three main modes... MR VFO and HM.... besides MR channel.... will this radio transmit on the others?
I have repeaters programmed in ok and they work fine by the way. But, I am trying to go simplex now and I am a bit confused. So I will post this now and then carry on from there...
The 2900 will transmit anywhere in the ham bands. You can receive much more (such as the NOAA weather stations) and program non-ham frequencies in the memory, but it will only transmit on the ham frequencies.
Be aware that there are sections of the 2-meter band set aside for repeater operation and the 2900 will by default automatically apply the standard split (+ or - 600 khz) for that section of the band. You are not breaking any rules by operating simplex in these sub-bands, but you will have to manually disable the split. That may be part of your confusion.
On the other side, the 2900 will know when it is on a common simplex channel and will not automatically add the split. You can operate simplex on these frequencies without having to disable anything.
I've found that it's easier to just avoid running simplex in repeater sub bands to begin with. Problem solved.
Obviously, it helps to know where the repeater and simplex frequency ranges are when programming the radio. There is a table in the ARRL Repeater Directory or of course ask your know-it-all friend, google.