I have a land mobile license

(in addition to a ham license and a GMRS license)...it would simply be a question of adding frequencies to the license, which is very simple. There are plenty of available channels in the 30.580 MHz to 31.980 MHz and 35.020 to 35.980 MHz ranges...plus a few more if you include the 27.430 MHz, 27.450 MHz, 27.470 MHz, 27.490 MHz and 27.510 MHz/27.530 MHz (low power) frequencies and 29.710 MHz, 29.730 MHz, 29.750 MHz, 29.770 MHz and 29.790 MHz land mobile frequencies available for mobile use.
A lot of the low split radios are on the market (those that cover the 33 MHz fire frequencies) for sure, same with the middle split (36-42 MHz for Motorola gear if I remember correctly), seems like the lower and upper splits (29-37 MHz or thereabouts and 42-50 MHz) are more available on the secondhand market. Lots of options.
The 39 inch telescopic whip seems to be the way to go. It was simple enough to do an antenna swap - I'll pull the radios apart again and see about adding a counterpoise.
Update:
I did some more testing with the telescopic whip equipped Maxon PC-50 (I now have three of them). This time I used a different known 49 MHz signal (this one on 49.860 MHz / 49.865 MHz - I think it’s probably on 49.862 MHz or 49.8625 MHz - my scanner only does 5 kHz steps from 17 MHz to 108 MHz and the Maxon PC-50 is channelized). I’ll say 49.86 MHz (aka Channel C).
Anyway, simply replacing the rubber duck with the whip seems to increase receive range around 1.5x what it was with the rubber duck. It’s now the same as the Pro-96 scanner connected to a 1/2 wave VHF high band antenna (not the best antenna setup I know).
Since I have three PC-50s I will connect one of them to an outdoor wire antenna with counterpoise and then I’ll be able to do a side by side comparison of the telescopic whip and the stock rubber duck as far as receive performance goes.
I remember reading about directional wire antennas for tactical VHF FM use (30-76 MHz), including rhombic and other interesting designs for longer range with your handy PRC-25 or PRC-77 radio. It’s in the field manual I have around here somewhere.
Of course, the next logical step aside from secondhand low band gear on 49 MHz is a pair of PRC-77s on 49.850 MHz

As I type that I’m reading about the Alinco DJ-V17L HT - it’s a “50 MHz” HT but apparently covers 36 MHz to 59 MHz transmit and receive.