I knew a kid in a trailer in Hinesvile Ga that was using a FireStick on a roof gutter mount, a tiny Realistic or Cobra 40ch radio and a tiny wall-wort to power it. As long as people where behaving and the alligator stations and mobiles where not stomping around he was heard just fine. In fact I could hear him on a quite night just audio no signal sometimes 30 miles away in my mobile.If you're not being heard, it's not the fault of the radio. Ares 2 has pretty darn good audio right out of the box.
What are you using for an antenna ? Remember, the antenna is about 90% of the reason you do or don't get out, not the radio.
I knew a GI that lived in the Baracks I think his handle was SlimReaper or BigTop Reaper and drove a Green Ford Ranger. He first got on the air at Ft. Stewart sticking the top of an Antron 99 out the window of his Barrack bedroom.
I knew a great guy and his wife was terrific as well. GI went by RubberChicken! I think he was driving a Caviler with a Wilson 5000 and an HR2510 wedged into the glove box. He worked all kinds of stations and did all kinds of T-Hunts with us. Turned me on to some great guitar heavy metal!
My point is no one complained about their gear. Probably because few of us where on the internet in 1991-1993 and the few of us that where were not on a site like complaining about how bad our gear was we where too busy out and about having fun with our gear. If your gear was getting the job done that is all that mattered!
The prob. today is to many opinions and forum queens that spend more time on the forum than they do out in the world talking! Too many low value people with huge amounts of dirty power and splatter box radio's today. 1/1000 of the people today on the air but most of them have really powerful radios that have been butchered. It is hard to be heard on a 4 watt radio when most people are using 140w to 600w radio's with butchered audio circuits.
I can remeber when most bases where an omin direction antenna or a simple pair of stacked quads and a 50w to 150w amp at most. I can remeber when a lot of guys upgraded to dual final radio's for base use and put their amp in the attick or the closet!
Funny how so many where 10X happier almost 30 years ago than most of the guys on this site with far less radio, amp or antenna than most guys on this site running more radio, more power and better antennas today! Maybe finding a way to be happy is what is missing?
RuberChicken if your out there I wish you and your wife all the best! Great times at Ft. Stewart!