It depends. Typical starter radios like the BaoFeng UV-5R have a range of about 5 miles without the use of local repeaters. When you are able to connect one of these little handheld radios to a repeater, you vastly increase the range by hundreds of miles. If you’re using an HF radio, and have a General Class license, you can regularly talk 500+ miles or more with a simple set up. Learn more