Old-tech CB radios could do the trick. Around here pretty much all 40 channels are dead air, so I can use mine to contact friends and not worry about interference. The range of vehicle models is ridiculously longer than handhelds but I have a pretty standard handheld that works great. Mine is a Cobra 37ST, I got it on sale for $90 Canadian I think. It came with an antenna obviously, but it is the screw-on BNC type. I bought an extended range antenna from Cobra for something like $12 and it doubles the range of the unit to about 2-4 miles depending on conditions, and it screws on the same way as the one that came with it. CB radios are more prone to interference, but you can also tinker with the squelch way more to pick up weak transmissions.
GMRS (forget FRS their transmitters are capped at .5W) are much clearer when you transmit because of FM band, but their range on civilian models is capped. In Canada you don't need a licence for GMRS operation, but last I heard you still need one in the US. In Canada the GMRS transmitters are capped at 2W, but in the US I believe it is 5W. Anyways, as previously mentioned, the range under realistic and practical conditions is about 1/2 mile in urban areas, although you will get way better than that in open rural areas. The best GMRS radios I've personally used (I sort of collect them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) are made by Uniden, I have the Uniden GMR885 pair seen
here. They have huge easy to read displays, and excellent transmission clarity. You can also get NOAA weather reports (updated hourly) on them and they can be set to "disaster mode" where the NOAA channel is checked every 5 seconds for an emergency broadcast. If you're using the radio, it just sounds like a momentary pause. There's also a power boost key that uses the full power (2W on this model) for the transmitter. This helps save battery power since most transmissions will work with 1W which is the default when you transmit. Transmissions are changed to .5W if you're on an FRS-only channel.
Anyways, that's what I'd recommend for a GMRS set. Most Motorolas are garbage either because they have no features, or because Motorola uses Ni-Cd battery packs in their rechargable sets for some reason. These Unidens are cheaper than the higher end Motorola set (T7100), have more features, and are smaller!
CB might be a good way to go however, as you could certainly get better range out of them, especially on the car-mounted units. I've heard stuff about 10 miles away in my car, while the farthest I've heard on GMRS was 3 blocks in the city. CB gear is more expensive though, a basic model here is about $80 Canadian, I sprung for a more expensive model ($110, also on sale) which featured a scan feature and I'm quite pleased with it. CB is mostly discarded now because it's so old, but if everyone in your area is on GMRS...you won't have to deal with clogged channels! Oh yes, CB no longer requires a licence in Canada, I believe it's the same in the US. Most sets do not include an antenna however, so you're looking at another $50 (what I payed in Canadian $$) to get a pretty good antenna from RadioShack. I also had to calibrate the antenna myself with an SWR/Field Strength meter, also from RadioShack. Now that that's out of the way though, I'm pretty much set for good. Definitely more expensive, but for the added range and abilities...I'm one guy who thought it was worth it.
