depending on how far you want to talk you might want to contact your local ham radio club/group. From memory I think CB can only go 10w ERP max which depending on conditions can talk a few miles out to several hundred at night/early AM on skip (legally). With Ham Radio you can EASILY talk that far and more using different frequencies and methods and can legally run up to 1500watts of power on certain bands..

Really comes down to what you want to do? Using local repeaters you can talk over an entire city area or more with a hand held unit on VHF/UHF. There are a few repeaters near charlotte that allow us to talk to folks up near the mtns on VHF/UHF.