Prepper Forum

Define "communicate".

With who?

Over what distance?

Also for what kind of scenario?

There's probably some more things to define first, which will help guide a solution.

In a nutshell, over short/local distances (1/4 mile to perhaps 5 miles under ideal conditions, which never happen), GMRS can be used. It's easy to learn. But it's very range limited in general.

You could setup your own repeater on something high, and get miles of range then (I regularly pickup folks 10+ miles away because there's a repeater half way between us on a tall building).

Long distance, HAM/HF. But that's very complex, you really have to learn quite a bit to make that happen, and whoever's on the other end would need similar skilset.

CB can do significant distance too.

With any radio, the higher the antenna, the farther the reach - that's the primary driver.

Radio is a helluva rabbit hole, but I'd recommend starting with GMRS - radios are fairly inexpensive, you can get started for about $100 if you find a deal on a radio 2 pack (and not the cheap blister pack crap, something like TidRadio or better).

Cell phones are just radios that link to a repeater nearby - the cell tower. That tower then links to the phone network, typically via cable.