Assuming that you want to be able to talk more than 10 miles all by yourself (no repeaters), the only way is to go HF. Currently, that means learning morse code as well as all of the technical stuff. As far as radios go, you can use a $50 kit and a long wire, or you can dump $10,000 on a radio and a $300 beam antenna on top of a $500 tower. There are a lot of options open.

A single-frequency low-power CW rig can be built for $40 (rockmite). A fairly neat four-band CW radio about the size of a paperback novel can be built for $300 (Elecraft KX-1). These are probably the best for portable battery-powered work. Check out Elecraft's other stuff.

The biggest manufacturers of radios are: Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu. Ten-Tec also commands a certain amount of respect, and are USA-made.

Check out the following web sites:
www.eham.net
www.arrl.org
www.qrz.com
www.gigaparts.com
www.aesham.com

Have fun!

KG4ZUD