I have a pair of "no-name" frs radios that work well enough to have fun with in the country. These radios work in the vhf range and have a VERY limited line-of-sight range. They are low power. If you live in a flat area such as Kansas or some other mid western state you might have a two mile line of sight where you actually get the advertised usage. Here in New England there is no-way to get two miles away from the other radio without having a hill intervene. I have found that they work admirably well if one of them is at the top of a mountain or ridge. <br>I finally bit the bullet and got my HAM lisence KB1HIC so I could get something with a bit more power. A typical VHF handheld transmits with something like 10 times the power allowed in the frs radios. You have access to a much broader bandwidth so you can usually find a frequency that is quiet enough to let you converse. There are often repeaters available to Hams for free that allow these radios to transmit great distances. This works because the repeaters are located on hill or mountaintops and usually re-transmit your signal at much greater power - up to 15000 watts. (enough to fry your head if you did that from a handheld). Repeaters often have connections into the phone system that allow you to make phone calls from your handheld. All in all if you are in a populace area you will have access to repeaters quite a way into the wilderness and if you are relying on any handheld in a truely remote area you will find that the week power of the frs radios to be inadequate.<br>There are weekend classes available in most places that teach and test you on the basics ending with you getting your lisence that weekend. I can personally attest that it is possible to pass these tests even without preparing for the class ahead of time.<br>Prices for a good HAM handheld range from 150 for a used single band unit which still gives you greater frequency usage than the frs units and much more power all the way up to 500 for a high end unit with access to 4 bands and the ability to listen to many more including TV, AM, FM, Police, Weather, FAA, Military, NOAA, NASA ...<br>For my money I went with a 400$ unit because of the ability to listen on many bands, the smaller form factor and the lithium battery (Kenwood F6A) Works great and the audio portion puts out a high quality sound. The couple of frs radios are now used by the 7 and 5 year old daughters for fun.