I have made two of these J pole antennas for some preppers out in the country west of Richmond, Virginia and they both have Baofeng UV5 R radios and antenna adapters...

here these antenna plans..from the web...

https://kc7hxc.us/links/radio/jpole/build-jpole.html

They can hit the Richmond repeater on the roof of a bank building downtown Richmond...some 40 miles east of them and I can also hit it at night....from here to Richmond some 60 to 70 miles north west of me. though I am using a more powerful mobile radio on my base station..some 45 watts. This is how we keep in touch on occasion..in addition to texting.

I figure the total crow flies distance is about 120 miles.

But should cell phones go down we have this method using repeaters..as one of the people in this group is a technician ham.

But Ideally ...hf radio would be best and not dependent on repeaters.

Nonetheless there are things you can do and the baofeng radios fit in nicely without breaking the bank and that is to me their very great advantage.

And you can do things to make them more efficient with a bit of knowledge and or experience/thought.

Again ..hope this helps,
Orangetom
Not an Ishmaelite.