My wife and I are purchasing some acreage in another state. Cellular phone service is spotty on the property. Therefore, we are looking to purchase two-way radios to communicate with each other, workers, and family members. The land is about one mile deep, heavily wooded in areas, rises 550 feet from front to mid-rear then drops 400 feet, and the hills are solid rock. There is no economical way to put a repeater at the top of the property. We would also like to communicate with other automobiles when we caravan to/from the property and when we go on hikes. We are willing to spend more than a little and I am not averse to getting the $85 GMRS license. However, I am cheap and don’t want to spend more than needed.
I am assuming that we will need a UHF radio because of the interference with the forest and hills. Because of the distance and interference, we may need as much power as allowed. It appears that we will need a business radio programmed to GMRS or a top of the line consumer model. From reading BuyTwoWayRadio’s blog and forums, the models that may appeal to me are the Kenwood TK-3202L-U16P and Motorola RDX RDU4100 (for power) or the Midland GXT900-VP4 and Motorola T9580R-SAME (for price). To confuse matters even more, the Garmin Rino 530 HCx with GPS seems interesting where we can track on a map where each other is and check our heading and altitude when hiking. However, how accurate can this be with a 1:100,000 scale?
After all that, basically, what radio would you recommend for my needs?