brayirish,
As a licensed "ham" operator & a "storm recovery volunteer", I have considerable experience with 2-way radios of numerous sorts.
NONE of the "prepackaged" & CHEAP sort of radios that one usually sees in discount & sporting goods stores (by Cobra, Motorola, etc.) works "worth a hoot" or sometimes at all in mountainous terrain, as the vast majority of such radios work in the VHF-high or (more commonly) in the UHF portion of the radio spectrum.
(I would NOT bet my life and/or that of my friends on cheap VHF/UHF radios that MAY well work POORLY or NOT at all in an emergency. - During one east coast hurricane recovery event that I worked, some radios & at some times wouldn't "talk" a 1/4 of a mile 100% of the time & seldom successfully beyond 2 miles.)
As I told a TX DPS senior supervisor, who was looking for a suitable radio system for the rough terrain/mountainous areas along the TX/Mexico border, VHF-high & especially UHF radios are "line of sight" & therefore work poorly, IF AT ALL, in places W/O a more or less direct line from one radio to the other.
ImVho, what the DPS agent & you need are COMMERCIAL-INDUSTRIAL QUALITY, LOW-BAND FM (that's between about 25 & 50 MHZ) radios..
(IF you can find 2 or more of the so-called "agricultural radios" that operate just above or below the 11M "Class D citizen's band", those should work WELL for your purposes, as will any number of other low-band FM radios of the sort that rural LE, FD & ambulance services have used for decades.)
I've seen several such LOW-BAND FM radios for sale on Ebay.com, under "commercial & industrial supplies" & at very reasonable prices.
GOOD LUCK on your search & upon the hunts to come!!!
yours, tex
Last edited by satx78247; 07/06/18. Reason: typos
