[Kenwood] TM271A Mod or suggest something

[gdanaher at comcast.net]

I've been assigned the task of assisting a group in Namibia ro repair their communications sytem in a very rural area. They aren't hams but had some sort of transceiver operating at about 153 MHz, and it was doing whatever job it had to do. Looks like the cheapest fix would be a TM271A, opened up to transmit at this higher frequency. Is there a MARS/CAP mod to do the job here and transmit  to 153 MHz? Is there a better current-model that would be a better choice for the task? Anyone have the mod if it exists?