We use 5 watt upper end motorola's and tekk's. They work really well, and with the wattage they push up and over the mountains pretty well. Keep in mind...."distance" is line of sight, and based on the power of your radio. Some might go 30+ miles if you were on the ocean....but in the woods its definitely different. That said, ours have even gone pretty far in the woods...miles for sure, but they are not cheap radios. However, they all have limits, since they are line of sight.

I have not used the cheapo models....I'm sure for the avg person they will do the job. Ihave seen ones that beep every time you talk...[&:]