I am looking to get comms for a survival situation.
I have an idea of the capabilities I want it to have.

My goals

0-2 mile range in a standard suburban area.  My area is relatively flat.
Simplicity.  I want to hand a radio to a kid and say “turn it to channel 4 and push this button to talk.
I also want it to be ready to go with minimal fuss.  I think this eliminates most ham stuff.  And I’ll be honest. I have zero desire to go down that route.

I’m thinking GMRS.


I think I want about 8 Handheld radios and maybe a base station or two.

For the handhelds I would like to keep it under $40/radio.  I think baofeng makes something in this price range.

For the base station I can see the need to toss a rope up a tree or a light pole and have some extended range. I have no clue how to source this. Coax cable?  Antenna?  J pole?  
I would like the bass station be powered by both 12v and a standard house plug.  

I would like to get this all into a used pelican case.

I also am thinking of adding a small SDR setup and a shortwave radio.

Anybody able to help point me towards a base station and antenna setup?

GMRS is ideal for what you are talking about. Heck, MURS or FRS would be fine as well other than the base station for FRS because they don't have removable antennas.

As for a base station, you really aren't talking about a base station if you want it to be mobile in a Pelican case. You can just get a Midland Micro Mobile radio or a handheld radio and add a long cable with an antenna on it. The other option is to use something like this with a handheld radio. https://a.co/d/8MaXURm

If you use a micro mobile radio you can power it with any 12v source. The usual setup in an ammo can or pelican case.

If you want to build your own here is a video: https://youtu.be/j5jsIjI2H5w?si=A6ZdGdFLmXL46KXC

If you want to buy one already built you can go here: https://midlandusa.com/pages/search-results?q=ammo%20can%20base%20station

I picked up 4 of these recently after a thread in GD.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CDKMWYGR?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image

Work well for my needs, similar to yours. I tested them with a buddy, we got over 14 miles with stock antenna and clear conditions/minimal trees, etc. I ordered 40 inch antennae, too.

In for base station ideas....

That’s what I had in mind for the handhelds.

Seems decent messing around with them. Simple for kids, work well around woods/trees. Extended range definitely is dependent on clear lines.

Does anyone know if the rope antenna above is effective on these radios?

For $74, i'd save the money and put it towards something like a Diamond x50c2 that you know will be a quality antenna.  Either way you need to budget in coax.

No, it's tuned for the VHF amateur radio band, GMRS is a UHF band, very different frequency range.

And if you want that type of antenna, you could DIY a simple dipole made from coax cable for a couple dollars worth of parts, $70 for that is egregious.

Totally agree.

This is half the price, good for GMRS and great reputation for quality antennas.
https://n9taxlabs.com/shop/ols/products/dual-band-murs-gmrs-slim-jim-with-10-or-16-foot-cable

Roll up dual band J-pole from n9tax works well.  I have had a couple of them for years.

Tag, because I'm working on this, too.  I just bought the cases this weekend.

Gonna mix in some 915mhz meshtastic plus a private ATAK server.

Right now, radios on FRS and radios on amateur bands.

HF rig also incoming...

Anyone have a simple SDR rig?  Maybe something tablet based.
I saw an S2 underground video on it.

Airspy mini with a tablet running SDR# and various plugin addon software features is difficult to beat for the money.