Need some advice

[Lightspeed]

For close in work and range up to 4 miles, go with the 5r. Its a little more powerful than the 3r, so will give you slightly better range.

For more reliable coms with the guys 4 miles away, you may need to fit an external antenna.

As BoB says, don't be scared of by all the hype. Once you've worked out the programming logic they are fairly easy to work with.