I read through AR-Jedis threads - thanks for the wealth of information.
Honestly at this point I am little overwhelmed by all the options and advice.

I have BF and am able to hear the repeater in town, waiting on my license to post to transmit.
I ordered a 10 watt TYT 8000 which seems like a decent HT and have about 200 bucks budgeted for a mobile or base station but am not sure next steps.
I plan to sign up with local club when i get my call sign and already ordered the General arrl book

Moving forward I have a few goals.

1. Communicate with wife when she goes into town 20 miles away
- I am thinking of buying an inexpensive HT, then finding two channels that will work for simplex, and locking the channels. Then wife just has to turn it on and listen, and in an emergency can transmit. The TYT should be able to transmit fine anywhere nearby.

2. Communicate with friends in major city 120 miles away.
- I have already been able to link up via repeater with my BF, I would prefer to go to simplex as i expect the repeater to get crowded.

3. Communicate with family 400 miles away.
- no clue , they have panic bought BFs but likely havent opened the box.

Currently I am grounded due to winter weather / working from home. My though is to buy a mobile, set it up to work from home, eventually installing it in my vehicle and buying a real base station.

Any thoughts or advice?

Being a little brutally honest, amateur radio was probably not the best choice for what you want to do unless you and all your friends/family members plan to study for their General exam, start saving to buy some expensive equipment, and brace for a lit of trial-and-error to figuring things out.

I appreciate your honesty

friends / family members have bought radios and at least one at each location is signed up to test for technician. Ill have to hold their hands but they seem willing

my plan would be to set them up with radios that work, then they could listen to my transmissions and respond in an emergency

Find on what repeater and times local nets happen.  Give them a listen to get an idea of net protocol and your neighbors.  Once you're in the uls, check in and introduce yourself.

Under normal conditions, family and friends will also need licenses.

Things like DMR or Echolink might span those distance gaps, even at the tech privilege level.

A decent antenna commected to your HT will increase range significantly, even if it's just a 1/4 wave mag mount plopped on top of the fridge or an AC duct in the attic.

You could even make one of these. It's not sturdy enough to be left outside for any length of time, but should work well in the attic.

I agree.

6 to 10 miles is more likely with VHF or UHF simplex.  If you are near a repeater, 20 miles may be possible, esp if it is between the 2 of you.

#2 and #3 are in the realm of General class license equipment, but it will also depend on equipment and propagation; even at that, it will have times of unreliability

Planning to use the emergency exemption is an exceptionally bad plan and defeats the entire purpose.

Plan to have communications that works and that is accessible to the people who need to communicate.

If the people you talk to aren't going to get amateur licenses, then don't plan to use amateur radio, it's that simple. Get GMRS or rent LMR repeater space or get sat phones or whatever.

Your only real shot at covering the distances you talk about is using linked repeater systems. It's possible to cover it on HF, but you're looking at a lot of expensive equipment, big antennas, and need experience in operating, with the end result being something that isn't all that reliable.

thanks for the input guys.





Looks like I need to accept using repeaters then.

Thanks for the feedback. I am sorry I should have been more clear.

The plan is not to rely on the emergency exception entirely. #2 and 3 both WILL be getting technicians license. I will be getting general.

I know my wife wont even think about the radio until the day comes when her phone wont work and if there is a radio in the glovebox she can talk. but GMRS seems a easier role for that.

I see what you are saying about long distance, I think I am better off just putting the work in on the repeaters.

Not knowing where you are roughly, terrain plays a big factor.  In the end, it may be best to get a gmrs license and teach your wife how to use it.  When an emergency happens, that’s not the time to learn to use it.  It’s no different than a fire drill.  You practice so it becomes second nature.  She can’t rely on the idea of waiting for an emergency. Repeaters will help extend the range but in the end all of your family that lives a ways off need to get general licenses or forget about it.

Colorado plateu, lots of mountains, but lots of repeaters.

The gmrs license makes sense. but my wife wont show any interest until the world is on fire.

Ill see if i can push general on my brother. interestingly enough he got the gmrs in my dads name so covers almost all of them, they live in a different state but all in same town

Gmrs is still local comms.  HF is needed to do regional without repeaters.  With repeaters, some are linked.  Wife going to have to sort life out.  You wait for an emergency to use something the first time, she’s going to fail, epically. Worked public events and some disaster events.  Have seen emergencies pop up during public events.  Even the ham guys who use radios a lot can get flustered.

True, but you're not getting 120 miles out of simplex VHF no matter what, because of that pesky curvature of the earth thing.  Even with a 90 ft height of eye, the visual horizon is only about 12 miles, and the radio horizon just a little more (barring surface ducting which is sporadic at best). So with 2 antennas at 90 ft, you'll get around 24-26 miles. There's no way around the physics, the OP is going to have to get a General license and an HF rig to talk that distance without using repeaters.

First, congratulations on your new ham ticket!

My son and his friends regularly have S9 QSOs using 2M simplex at 15+ miles.  However, they are using 50 watt mobiles as base stations, with 30 foot masts and a Comet GP-9 antenna.  Its doable, but you will need to spend some money and time to get the equipment set up.  For more than local coverage,  you will need HF radios.  

I've gotten ~50mi from a negative gain halo antenna 3' above my truck to a beam mounted at 20'agl using 2m ssb. I have terrain issues with getting more range and haven't been able to see what the range is with two properly mounted gain antennas. This takes much more expensive equipment than a basic 2m fm mobile radio though.