[usconservative]

Thanks for the info. It could come in handy.

They're nice little radio's, but by themselves aren't very useful for more than 5-10 miles of coverage on transmit, longer on receive using their included antenna.

If you want to increase that, buy yourself a cheap base station antenna such as a Workman UVS-300 and about thirty feet of mast along with 45 feet of Belden 9913 coax and good PL-259 connectors. Don't forget the antenna adapter to plug it into the Baofeng.

Easy to assemble, will dramatically increase the range of the Baofeng and be much more functional, assuming local repaters are still on the air.

Also get yourself one of these so you can find the local repeaters in your area and out of your area if you need to bug out for any reason.

[DocRock]

Adding to your post, a good home brew dual band antenna can be built for about 4 dollars. Here are the PLANS. I have been using one set on chain link top rail about 25 feet in the air with a 5 watt handheld. I get 1.1-1.3 swr following those simple instructions. Chain Link Top Rail makes great home brew antenna mast for about a dollar a foot. With a cheap handheld and that set up, I can easily hit repeaters 20 miles away.