ED> Can anybody suggest a good, easy to make at home, cheap, makeshift 
antenna 
ED> a handheld?  All I have is the stock antenna and a lot of broadcasts 
barely
ED> break the squelch and are really broken up and hard to understand.  I 
ave
ED> looked into a pre-amp and I cannot use it due to the fact that a few
ED> frequencies are very strong and would cause problems.
You could use an RF-pre amp with a filter attached to it. Not sure what
"strong frequencies" you want to block out, but they make filters 
pecifically
for cellular, television and the radio band which might help you. You can
attche the filter right above in-line with the rf-preamp. (cost about $20 -
$70 us dollars).
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