I live half a mile from my volunteer fire station. We are toned out on a VHF frequency by a neighboring municipality, and we provide mutual aid for their fire department that is toned out on an 800-meter frequency. I am not able to monitor their frequency because I don't have equipment that can do that, but if I could do that I would have advanced notice when we would likely be toned for mutual aid and could improve our response times. (This is worth doing for me since I live so close. If we end up not being toned it's a short drive back to my house.)
I would like to be able to monitor both frequencies with one handheld radio and be able to at least transmit on the VHF frequency and do my ham stuff on the same handheld. I don't want to have to keep up with and charge 2 radios all the time.
I own a Wouxun KG-UVD1P that allows me to monitor frequencies for our department (VHF) and some UHF frequencies, just not in the range to catch the neighboring departments dispatches. I have also been issued a 'Vertex Standard' that also allows me to also monitor our own frequencies but it cannot reach the municipality from some parts of our district (don't want to sound ungrateful, just being honest).
Does such a handheld radio exist that covers that range of frequencies, and can also take a small beating?