The Real Mid range comms system 446

[Joe]

I have been looking at an alternative comms system for a while now but we have very few good options available. Granted if you are a Ham radio operator then you can use 2m vhf and their very good repeater network but this is not ideal if you just want to contact the family when the SHTF. Are you seriously going to persuade the wife to sit her Ham test ? Doubtful.
So what other options do you have ? Yes you could use CB but the band is normally full of interference and people playing music so it's not ideal.
The next alternative is those 446Mhz walkie talkies you see in argos for £20 but are they any good for anything over half a mile? not really.
But that 446Mhz is very good, it's just the equipent that's poor.
So what if you use a proper dual band radio with 25-50w of power and a proper antenna eg colinear on the roof. Hey presto you are now out to 20-30 miles base to mobile comms, just what you need when the SHTF.
Now the techy folk will be quick to spot that this is slightly illegal but how often do you plan to use it ? Plus you are hiding in plain sight.
Plus any testing you need to do can be carried out late at night when other users are not using the band.
The techy part.
For the base station you would need something like a Comet GP3 mounted high on the roof, it's only 6 foot so no one will notice it. For the car you can use a magmount uhf 6db colinear,which gives very good performance and lives in the boot till you need it.
And for the rig you can pick up any mobile UHF rig that does 25-50w, Ebay is full of them for under £100.