Any Tman folks know much about radios? I'm interested in buying some sort of two-way that I might be able to talk to my kids on in an emergency. They would need to reach 30 miles.....is that even doable without breaking the bank?

Depending on the terrain a CB radio should be sufficient.
There ought to be a lot of those laying around unused.
They were really popular years ago.
just

I use a cb at work all the time, it is pretty much standard equipment on eighteen wheelers. Cb and ham radio are two different things. Cb is pretty much line of sight. If the land gets between two cb radios reception drops off quickly in as little as a half mile. To get thirty miles from a cb the radios have to be "peaked & tuned" and both antennas have to have the swr adjusted to a 1 to 1 swr that is the standing wave ratio. And the land,topography has to be flat, or one of the radios has to be above the other so no land is between them. Single side band cbs have a much greater range but are about two or three times as expensive as a regular cb. I don't know of any hand held ham radios. Ham radio can "talk" very long range. I believe they "skip" there radio signals off the ionosphere. Some drivers hook up thousand watt "kickers" amplifiers to their cbs to get more range but they are illegal and tend to burn out the finals in their radios. You can look into the single channel personal frequency radio which have a longer range than cbs but no where near the range of ham. They are expensive as well.

I remember when I was a teen ager my close group of friends all lived within about 5 miles of each other, we all had cbs in our bedrooms and in our trucks- those were the cell phones of our day. 30 miles would be an extreme stretch for cb as far as I know but I am interested in hearing some responses, wife and I were talking about this not to long ago to but never did any searching.

PS. A couple of good single side band cb radios will talk thirty miles or more, the most I've ever talked was approx seventy five when the terrain is not two bumpy. Cobra 148. Grant XL. Ranger, are examples of ss band radios but they run from about three hundred to nine hundred bucks plus antennas. Cell phones are probably your best bet. Also the hand held cbs won't talk much further than you can spit. Actually about three hundred yards on the pair of cobra walkytalkies I bought once for my niece and nephew to talk from their vehicles to my regular cb on a cross country trip to go hunting. Hope this answers your question.

You didn't say base or mobile.There is a big difference in capability here.Two base radios with good antennas on straight AM,thats a regular CB might do it,Two ssb CB.s on good base antennas will do it.I'm a ham operator and judging by your message I don't get the impression that everybody involved will want to study up and take an exam to get licensed.I don't know the type of terrain your setting up in,or how important this is,but if you go the CB route don't skimp out on equipment.It's going to cost you more but if you want communication over that distance without going the ham route your going to have to pay the extra jing.

Are you talking over water?
just

Don't know the range of them, but a lot of atv guys around here run the "rugged" brand radios .

30 miles CB Base station to base station shouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be here in flat country at all. Kinda depends on the lay of the land across that 30 miles or if both your houses are on top of a hill or down in a hole but you live in Michigan and not WV so it reasonable to expect it to work.

The good news is that there are plenty of base stations to be had at garage sales flea markets craigs list and etc. Start looking and get you two of them. Once you have that, look into antennas. That's where you wont want to skimp. Something long and tall on top of like your old arieal tv antenna tower or off the peak of your barn would be great.

And to be honest if you got a good super tuned cb in your truck with a Wilson 5000 antenna in the center of the roof of your cab talking base station to a truck back and forth at 30 miles is pretty doable too. We do it here anyway. Again depends on that 30 miles.

Anyway. Not sure where you are in Michigan but Exit 99 on I-75 in Ohio is a shop that would get you all setup. Give them a call and have them super tune whatever you end up getting. Theyd be who to ask what antennas to buy for base stations too. They sell used radios too, both truck and base. Good luck.

I see your orig hand held ham radio sentence now. Hand held cb radios like a midland or Cherokee are the best and they wouldn't touch eachother at 30 miles.

Now... if when you said HAM you really meant HAM I'm sorry I don't know anything about that this was all CB radio info.

I never used a CB but the hand held HAM radios ("HT"'s) will not go thirty miles HT-to-HT. However, you can easily cover that distance with a cheap hand held radio if using a local repeater. But you will need an amateur radio license to do that. Getting the license is cheap, easy, and fun if you like learning something new. How old are your kids? Are they at least teenagers? If so, they should have no trouble passing the test if they study up for it. It's not that hard to do.

To me it would be much easier and cheaper to buy a $25 ham radio and take a $15 test to get your HAM license instead of studying up on how to make an expensive CB work for your application.

Where in northern Michigan are you? I know East Jordan has a good repeater and there's another decent one in Stutsmanville. I'm sure there must be several around Gaylord.

I out a cobra in my truck more for sentimental reasons and something to do during longer trips.

I had memories of them being really popular as a kid. I don't know if mine just isn't very good but I only get a few basement dwellers with base stations around town and if driving have to be very careful to the other guy to be able to talk. It has helped out when stuck in traffic.

In an emergency the repeaters could be down. Happened here last big storm. They could also be in use by ARES or the local EMA if they have a amateur radio team.

For CB or 2 meter ham it's all about antenna and elevation. You could hook up a cheap 5watt hand held to a tuned antenna and talk a long way with line of sight. If you're both on top of a hill that might be easy, if you have a tall land mass between you that might be tough. I'd say average handheld range is 1-2 miles.

With more specifics I can give you a better answer. And as pointed out you need a license to operate the ham bands. Worth it though. Easy to get and you'll learn a lot.

get the license get a radio and experiment , the education alone is worth the price.

been a ham since 2003 my 25 watt 2 meter Mobil will make repeaters as far as 80 miles away 30-40 is common

hand helds not as far but repeaters at 15 miles or more.

the radio in my truck functions as a repeater if I set it up that way so if I was say 1 mile from my truck I could hit it with the HT and it would relay out at up to 50 watts

there are lots of options , you can often get the study guide form the library read it go take the test

Thank you all for all the good info. My "kids" are near middle aged, so I'm thinking they'd be able to do the license thing! I have been reading and watching YT videos on this for a bit, and the more I read/see, the more confused I was becoming.....info overload had hit me. It is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff if you are not informed at least a little. You folks have given me a good place to start fresh. Thanks again.

Any reason you're interested in handhelds? Just the price? You can get a Yaesu FT2900R 2 Meter 75 Watt Mobile for your car and a decent mobile antenna for around $200. A good handheld will still run you $150.

From what I've read, GMRS may be an option. The way i understand it is that if you buy a license it covers the whole family. Some of these are capable of some pretty good range. Check out midland mxt series.

more experienced radio usrs please correct me if I'm wrong.

Don't get a cb for what you want