This radio has been great.. I have owned it for about 6 months. As others I recommend the Nagoya 320A tri-band antenna for two reasons...one is never having to swap out antennae when you use 1.25m (220mhz)Although I have not done much experimenting on 70cm, I can hit repeaters 40+ miles away standing outside IF I am facing the right direction. The Chrip software is highly recommended. I first went to www.repeaterbook.com and looked at how many repeaters were available within 50 miles and found around 115 just in the VHF portion and programming all 115 of those would be a pain, so I downloaded Chirp, waited for the programming cable to arrive and soon I was hitting repeaters all over the place I am in the central San Joaquin valley(Stockton,Ca) and can reliably hit repeaters many miles away. If I can get into the repeater with full quieting (which is usually the case), then all audio reports are great.The most popular repeaters in my area seem to be towards the bay area Mount Diablo (Concord) at 34.6miles/, and mount Vaca (Vacavile) 53.8 miles, And while sitting here in my house, I can open the W6SF repeater in Fiddletown some 49 miles away and while they say I have some white noise they can understand all I'm saying.I am thinking of getting the 8 watt version of this radio just to be able to hit the Diablo and Vaca repeaters more reliably. I am very satisfied and would recommend this radio to anyone thinking of getting their 1st HT or a backup as it gets out further than you would think. The only caveat is no digital capability..no D-STAR, or DMR. Oh and this unit is NOT water resistant. Oher than that it is a solid radio. I am trying to talk some of my friends to get their ticket and get one of these radios.