I picked up a few Baofeng 8 watt radios and installed Nagoya 701 antennas, both off of Amazon. They have great range! Totally programmable with the CHIRP program. Anywhere I go, whether hunting or fishing, I'll set one up with all the local channels, marine channels, emergency channels, and weather channels. Can even bounce off repeaters(with a license) and extend range virtually across the state. Most of the standard handhelds like Midland are 5 watts max with crappy antennas and have preloaded/limited channels. Something to consider.