"Does the crusher completely crush normal food grade tin cans to a flat circle, or does it just dent them to make them smaller, if you know what I mean?"
Mine does crush well but its heavier duty than the one on amazon by the looks of it so shop around. Mine came from an American PX store on a US base.
Good antennas on the UV5 will help but never think you'll get 40 miles all the time and repeaters would more than likely go off air in no time at all. I like the UV5's, got a couple and for what they do are a cheap solution but NR, get your foundation license and something like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm13K69Pn7Y which will cover you for 2m and also the HF bands. They run off internal batteries, external (I use an alarm battery) and mains. The alarm battery lasted me a week in a caravan when using the rig a lot.