I'm looking for a long range handheld radio/walkie talkie that can work without 'line of sight', as in, it works across hilly terrain. My understanding is very limited (and perhaps wrong) in that the best way to 'reach' around hills and mountains is to bounce a signal off the ionosphere with a low frequency, between 3 and 30 MHz (3000-30,000 kHz). I've seen this referred to as 'low frequency', 'shortwave', and confusingly, 'high frequency' (HF) as opposed to VHF and UHF. But I'm having a hell of a time finding a handheld radio / walkie talkie in the 3-30 Mhz range, and I'm not even certain if that's what I should be looking for. Anyone got any pointers or suggestions? If it matters, this is for work. When we pig (clean) pipelines, it often requires very quick and clear communication, like when we have to pump for an hour to get the swab through the line but we have to shut off the pumps the instant the swab comes out or risk overflowing the at the discharge, phones just dont seem to cut it. We need a PTT network that goes around the hills that the pipeline flows underneath. We've tried sooo many radios and they always end up not having the range or getting blocked by terrain.
I am far from an expert but I do know that you can go on Amazon and get a baofeng radio starting at around $30 with lots of choices from 30 to $50. Not only is it a receiver but it is also a transmitter. From my limited understanding it gets every radio band that exists, airports prisons all sorts of first responders and ham radio. But one must be careful not to transmit over certain airwaves or you can get in trouble. You can actually use it to contact first responsors in a genuine emergency.
Ya, those were our most recent try actually. The Baofeng UV-5R8W I can confirm does not reach around hilly terrain, even with upgraded ~12" antenna. I mean unless I'm using it wrong, which I could be, damn things have like a million functions... But they are still UHF/VHF and I think what I need is way lower frequency than that. I thought it got all the frequencies too, but it seems it actually only goes from around 140MHz to around 400 or 500MHz. Which is an impressive range, but its not everything. But yes, it does work on every frequency in that range, regardless of whether its law enforcement or emergency or whatever. One could theoretically get in trouble for transmitting on a restricted frequency.
