[Coils]

Kernel typed faster, and gave better info too

I haven't dealt with scanners in a while, maybe about ten years, so someone else will have to help with that.


But for the handheld HAM, do you mean CB? The last time I looked into HAM they were fairly expensive.
I use to have a handheld CB type that I paid about $100 for and it sucked, half mile at the best. Most of the handheld units only put out a few watts which limits their ranges, and for $60 I don't think the one your looking at would be very good.
Let's say you just want something simple to talk to others in your group (like camping), those multi channel walkie talkies might even work for you, they have about a mile range (sometimes better), are fairly cheap and usually come in pairs, and I think most use the same frequency ranges.

If you want a radio for basic communications, and it doesn't have to be handheld, get a CB like you'd put in your car/truck. They run on 12v DC and have ranges from 7 miles & up, putting an antenna on the roof of the house (any where high up) really improves the distance, I got out about 40 miles already with one of these and it was only putting out 7 watts.