On Jul 28, 7:16*pm, " wrote:
Thank you for all your excellent and useful responses!

To clarify my purpose:

1- I've been waiting for an excuse to get into Ham radio. I'm very
interested in learning RF circuitry (Experimental Methods in RF Design
is enroute as we speak), and this is a perfect opportunity, because I
actually need it! So Im up for getting a license.

2- The purpose of the radio is for emergency and for the cool factor
of being able to talk to home from 100+ miles away in the desert and
tell them about all the sand and rocks i see. Exciting for them!

3- The CB does sound better for emergency. So now, lets change the
purpose of the ham radio to just "cool of taking to home 100+ miles
away". And I will get a CB for emergency.

I had been leaning toward 20 meters since it has been described
everywhere as the DX band of choice. Now I see that it may not work
well so "close" as 100 miles. But wouldn't 80 meters have even more of
a problem? I am still not clear on which band to use...maybe some more
help please?

Just to give some idea of the variability of 'Amateur Bands' due to
solar radiation, time of day etc.
Back some 50+ years ago had a war surplus receiver and on 20 metres
(14 megahertz) band could listen to the Australian amateurs rolling in
and chatting with the UK and Stateside hams early morning while f
getting ready for work. And this was with AM (Amplitude modulation)
and often with self built rigs. A few years later 20 m was dead.
(Sunspot cycle!).
Also operating at 5 megahertz military reserve frequency we sometimes
could transmit/receive hundreds of miles but not 40 miles to another
unit. It's radio!
Have fun.