My little girl out of the blue today said she wanted a radio to talk to her cousin.

Any good hand held that have a consistent range of 15 miles?

I'm clueless here.

If so?

May put it under the tree this year of its not to salty.q

15 miles? Gonna be pretty salty. Only thing im aware of thats handheld would be military grade.

nah i was wrong, there are a few models of regular 2 way radios that have quite the range. Here is a link to the first one that popped up on my search. Still not real cheap though

https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-MR3...210dbd9f00b266490605d19e2180231&th=1

consistent if you have a repeater yes.

however she and her cousin would then need to do a little studying and take the FCC test for an armature radio license you didn't mention her age I think the youngest licensed ham was 6 when she took the test.

there is handheld radio over IP if you have WIFI in the house and so does her cousin they could talk back and forth within the range of the WIFI

actually one easy and fairly low cost way to do this is an app called Zello the zello app can be loaded on a smart phone that has no cell plan an unlocked phone you purchase not through a cell carrier some of these devices can be had for around 40 dollars used , factory reset then only set up on WIFi.
my kids had gotten older cell smart phones from relatives that had upgraded they used them like tablets for a year or two

they aslso make more dedicated Zello PTT push to talk devices
https://www.amazon.com/Walkie-Two-Way-Smartphone-Android-3500mAh/dp/B075KL16R7

Not sure of the spelling. Beofang.

They are both 6

No wifi in either house

Several on there advertising 36 miles

I don't trust the advertisement.

What do you think?

No. The band that those radios work on won't get you near that far. If you google 'transceiver', you'll start finding radios with the range you're looking for. As mentioned, you may need an amateur radio license (ham radio operator) to operate them legally.. The problem you may have are obstructions in between the two radios and the slight curvature of the earth--you aren't exactly line-of sight anymore. Reception may be better at night, and getting separate antenna's mounted higher will help, but your best bet, if no one here is an expert and one is available, is to contact a local ham radio club in your area.

Base stations are more powerful, but if you start looking, just be aware that doubling the power doesn't double the range. It has to do with the radius and area of a circle. The radius of the circle is the range of your radio and the area of that circle is related to the power. You need 4x the power to double the range.

First determine if you have line of sight. Very important in any frequencies you're going to have available without a license. Use this tool.
https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

If you have clear line of sight you may be able to get that far with a hand held CB attached to an aerial antenna. A better choice would be one that does SSB but I only see mobile radios with that capabilty. You could set up two mobile stations but you're starting to spend some money. Pete's radio over IP suggestion is a good one too.

I bought a Baofeng UV-5R(handheld HAM radio) for $23 bucks I figured I'd play with one. I'm using it as a scanner now, PD, FD(County Dispatch), DOT, NOAA, SIMPLEX and two Repeaters, works great. I'm just listening right now to the repeaters from time to time also, heard people talking clearly 40+ miles away. I plan on getting my Ham license this spring, but from what I have learned(?), the simplex frequencies are walkie/talkie frequencies which work as a regular walkie/talkie also. Another cheap option...

The trouble is technically it's illegal to use these radios for things like FRS. It's fine to use them on the ham bands if you are licensed but not the other parts of the VHF/UHF frequencies.

If you don't have city buildings or mountains between the girls, a CB would reach if both locations had an antenna on a tower. These transmit at 4 watts max.

No FRS/GMRS radio will reach 15 miles. If you were both on mountain tops - maybe. We have used FRS/GMRS radios on the ground, in the woods or across open fields and can get 1 or 2 miles max. Beyond that it's awfully hard to understand the other person. These transmit at a max of 2 watts.

Marine radios with elevated antennas could reach that distance with no problem. But, the FCC would send out the black helicopters because these are for communication while on the water only. These transmit at a max of 25 Watts. Like all radios, they are limited to line of sight but 20 miles isn't unusual for these radios.

I have heard the Baofeng UV-5R has a wide range of frequencies that overlap with licensed frequencies and maybe an issue with transmitting at 5 watts also? I only plan on listening until I get a license. Thanks for the info!

Alright

It is exactly 9.6 miles away
No major land features other than valleys
Maybe a two story house or barn between two points

9.6 miles unless your on one hill and they are on the other hill with nothing but air between is going to be a maybe for anything hand held that doesn't need a licenses.

VHF 5 watt would be the closest thing in a hand held and most of those frqs are going to need a license.

there are some radios like the Baofang that are programmable and you can program them for many frqs , technically operating above 2 watts is prohibited on FRS , getting caught would be very unlikely if your only running 5 watts

use some caution in programming those baofangs they can be programmed for your local police frqs also , you need to stay off those as well as fire , for unlicensed kids they should stick to only FRS frequencies and lock out transmit on the rest when programming.

why a 5watt limit in hand held ?
if you go much higher and remember you are broadcasting that close to your eyes you start microwaving your head. over 5 watts you want to move that power away from your eyes especially.

part of why there is a test covering this safety info before you get licensed to play with 1500 watts

the other thing is those little antennas are very inefficient

if you have fairly clear line of site 10 miles on 5 watts with a larger stationary antenna would be much more likely.