I have been a long-time reader of this forum, but this is my first post. I live in the country with my family where cellular reception is poor. I want to be able to stay in contact with my wife while driving in the area. We considered purchasing two-way radios (e.g., Motorola) but the longest range ones we could find only reach 5 miles. Since we drive further than that from home (15 miles), we are looking for something with a greater range. Any suggestions? We are not limiting ourselves to two-way radios and are open to a broad range of suggestions. We would also like to know about FCC licensing requirements, if any, for any options posted. Thank you for your responses.

Dave

I would look seriously at becoming a licensed HAM operator. Technician license gives operating frequencies that can give you decent range depending on your terrain and local conditions.

If you live in an area that has HAM VHF or UHF repeaters you can achieve ranges up to 100 miles, again depending on a number of factors. Radio to radio contacts on some HAM bands can give up to 30+ miles depending on terrain.

I would check out my community HAM groups, check out licensing with them and see what sort of operations currently are available to you.

This link to the ARRL will give you local clubs etc. Test takes some study but there are resources for this too.

Finding clubs in your state

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/clubsearch.phtml

Finding exams

http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml

Local groups can help with necessary equipment to achieve your goals.

Good luck and welcome to ETS.

There are several licensed HAM members here which may have some more advice, but local conditions play a big role in what will work, so your community HAMs are a great resource.

What Randy says is absolutely true! The HAM lisence is the entry ticket to effective back-country comms. (and a whole world of expensive habit forming hobbies) With VHF / UHF in the flats (read kansas) you can get very long range 50 maybe even 100 mi. comms with a 50 wat mobile rig. If your locations have Home on a hill top you may even get decent radio - radio contact in hilly areas. If you get a 10 meter NVIS setup you can cover up to 300 mi point to point from a home base. With HF rigs (general lisence required) you can talk to Tokyo from Kansas city. (really!) With HAM satallites you can get coverage all around the world in the microwave frequencies. It is not all that expensive to set up for microwave / satellite comms either. There was an article last year on makeing a good satellite antenna from a card-board box and some copper plumbing for under $2.00