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Love my UV5R! I put a telescopic, 1 meter antenna on mine and was able to hit a repeater on Mount Diablo from the Twin Peaks in SF ~42 miles away!

PSA: we need more HAMs out there! Check out https://hamstudy.org and get your license https://hamstudy.org/sessions/remote

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Let me add my favorite, https://hamexam.org

What antenna?

just get a legitimate nagoya and call it good, if you want 100% portable and "not likely to break if you sneeze while using it".

And if you want something that's often just as good, but you don't have to worry about breaking it, get a Signal Stick:

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=13357

RH 660s. I was skeptical at first, but it has really held up. I get really good signal reports and people always say they're surprised when I'm using a UV5R. I did drill the microphone port open a little wider by the way and I think that helped get some more gain/clarity as well.

Note that the RH 660s is 27 centimeters collapsed (11 inches), and 1 meter fully extended. It is rigid so not one of the floppy antennas. Collapsed it can take abuse, but when extended, bending is a risk.

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