Possibly much better range
 

Searching around on the internet, I found that:

Antenna length for 27 MHz: about 6m
Antenna length for 49 MHz: about 11m

Of course, it is hard to get 18 or 33 feet in an MS, so you would have to use magnet wire. I'm not sure how much this will affect the range, so someone will need to try it. You could wind it like this:

(check next post for picture)

Pic

are those lengths what the antennas are or should be?
magnet wire kinda sounds like a good idea