Hello again folks.

Moments ago, I finished a conversation with an electrical engineer who seems
to know a lot about the design of current, multi-band handhelds. He tells me
that, electronically, designers now have the ability to build broadband,
output circuits that will accommodate spreads in frequency as wide as 50 mhz
to 500 mhz, thus allowing for any antenna that is close to 50 ohms and
reasonably resonant. He echoed the comments of several people here,
lamenting the rather fragil sma connectors, now on most of the modern
equipment. His suggestion was to purchase a cable, the length to be
specified by the customer, from a company that puts a sma connector at one
end and a selectable connector at the other, the cable itself, apparently
quite robust but rather thin and flexible. He's going to look for the name
of this company and get back to me. I'll pass it along for anyone
interested.

Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion. I now feel a bit easier
about attaching something a little more efficient than the bendable gadget
that comes with the handheld.

73's.

Jerry