Cobra LTd's and classics you can buy off the shelf and remove the restrictor for a 20watt outlay. Pretty much after that you need to visit your local hobby shop and ask to speak with someone "behind the counter" about a linear amp. Most guys I know run about 200-400 linear amps. Anything over 4 watts is in violation with the FCC. As long as ou keep the wattage below 300-400 watts on the linear amp then you don't have to worry about much. Anything up near the 700+ watt range and you begin to find out why there's a limit to the wattage. If you use the high wattage enough then you'll start to notice police rabbit hunting for you. (a way of finding where you are be raising and lowering the squelch as they drive... just don't key up in the same spot too often) The higher wattage radio signals command a presence over all the radio traffic. You'll also find it makes people mad when you pull into a Wendy's parking lot or something and start placing your food order over their intercom without driving thru the drive though. If you get wild enough you can even kill ignition systems in nearby cars and set off store alarms. The linear amps usually run $1 a watt. Most hobby shops I've seen carry nothing bigger than a 2000 watt amp. Of course all sells of these amps are receiptless. If you've got any further Q's, pm me.

By the way.... if you got a 1000watt L/amp.... prepare to buy about 3 extra car batteries to run it.... they have some serious amp draw.

Oh yeah.. and uh... All this was just to inform you of what *not* to do... for all legal purposes and stuff.

 

Higher end radios give you several things...more sensitive receiver, more adjacent channel rejection, more noise rejection...and of course more bells and buzzers. They all work the same and have the same output power.

For occasional use at fairly close range, high end stuff is not required. Mag mount antennas actually work very well, but can mess up your paint over time.

I'd go for a lower level of a quality name. Most all of the major manufacturers have radios from about $75 up.

 

Wilson 1000 all the way. For a radio, I spent $150 on a Galaxy 929. Nice radio. I used to have a Galaxy DX66V 10 meter radio set up to broadcast on CB frequencies... somehow it was putting out about 30 watts The really nice thing about the new Galaxy's is they have the backlighting so you can see the ***** in the dark.