Connunications update following Polls:

[The Local Ned]

Surprisingly not mate , one of those chinese handhelds = £30/40 max , they will cover UHF and VHF including the legal PMR freqs , most are also juiced up to kick out 4 or 5 watts rather than half a watt.

Antennas - you can get dual band antennas for these handsets - portable , mobile AND base station varieties , the base station ones arent that big really.

For national comms then this type of setup has possibilities , for international work then you need alternatives.