[–] 15336256? 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I bought a cheap set of the two-way radios to add to the set we already had. My husband works just a couple miles away so he has one and I have one at home. And his parents are within the 16-mile-radius, so they have one too. This was a $19.99 set of radios I picked up at Aldi's in their weekly finds section. There are long-range two-way radios too. I know Best Buy has them. If you go the two-way radio/walkie talkie route, just make sure you have plenty of batteries. If you end up needing these, they'll go batteries fairly quickly.
EDIT: Test them too. The ranges are affected by hills, trees, etc.
I find Olivia to be very resistant to QRM and QRN and relatively fast depending on bandwidth used. I used ALE400 for unattended text message exchange half way around the world on 20 watts during poor sun conditions (12 time zones and -40 to +70 latitude). There are plenty of new digital modes in MultiPSK (yeah, horrible interface but great software). Get back on and git some!
[–] 15336547? 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Turn on the radio and read a book. Life will continue.