[bellson]

TRX has hit the nail on the head.

Your use will dictate what your choice will be.

Anything in the Civilian sphere can be listened to. Trust me.

The Kernel brings up some very useful points however. Who do you want to be secure from? The Gov? Forget it.

For longer distance comms (handheld) you are going to have to either buy a very expensive antennae, or learn the math and basics of antennae design.

What the Army uses nowadays gets boosted by the radios in the vehicles. It's all pretty automatic. If ALL of the vehicles get blown away, the radios know this, and fall back to a lower freq and broadcast a Mayday. once a helo or other unit's vehicle is in range, the radios switch back to a normal mode. God I hope that was declassed....Anyway. The brainbugs that run Army Comms can dial into just about anything they choose to.

Just sayin...