Once again, thanks for all the well thought out reply's. The reason for the radios is for emergency purpose. I want to run as low of power as possible to save energy in a power outage. I have quality agm batteries to keep things going and solar. I am barely able to get into 2 different repeaters on 5 watts with my BTECH but my signal is nearly full quiet with the BTECH at the 15 watt setting. I'm using a diamond 400 meter and needle barely moves when I check the SWR (far below 1.5). My understanding with the Kenwood 880 and the 880H is that the 880 is 5 watts on low and the 880H is 10 watts on low. So, I wondered if the Kenwood's 880H signal at 10 watts is cleaner than the BTECH's so it may sound as good or better than the BTECH running 15 watts. Most of the reply's seem to refer to the antenna and I believe all of you that it would make all the difference in the world to improve on but at the moment I can't. I do however want a second radio that is repeater capable so I figured I may as well get some advice. Something I do like about the BTECH 50x1 that I would lose using the Kenwood is the ability to monitor VHF and having an FM radio. Probably considered gimmicky but I do like the features, (at least it doesn't have a flashlight). One more thing, the Kenwood's do have CTCSS correct, since that is what our local repeaters use near me. Thanks