My big question to you is " How much are you willing to spend?" . For under $100 you can purchase most of the consumer grade radios like the typical Cobra, Motorola or Midland FRS (family radio service) radios but their range is severly limited by terrain due to their short, inefficient antennas and the type of radio waves that they utilize.

Same thing basically applies to their GMRS (general mobile radio service)counterparts, again provided we are talking about the inexpensive " bubble pack" radios found at the local Walmart, Kmart, etc.... Plus, you need a license to legally operate on GMRS frequencies. The license is easy to get as all you need to do is fill out an application but it does cost $75 for five years and would apply to anyone in your family.

If you want something durable and reliable for longer distances than 1 or 2 miles then you are left with some of the more expensive GMRS radios on the market. These models allow you to use more efficient antennas and transmit with more than 2-3 watts. Radio Shack had a 5 watt GMRS model that was popular a year or two back and it sold for around $100 a unit. Other units such as the Pryme PR 460 sell for close to $200 a unit but they will effectively work for 4-5 miles over hilly terrain and closer to 7-8 miles or more under more ideal, flat conditions.

All the info you could ever want can be found at www.popularwireless.com . They have a message board like this one for each of the individual radio services...FRS, GMRS, MURS, CB, etc.... Pop on over there and fire away with any questions. Those folks are very knowledgable and usually pretty friendly. Just make sure you mention that you know about the license issue with GMRS...

If you have any more questions on anything I mentioned then go right ahead.