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Hello, Don - Welcome to the Forum. Jeremy's advice is solid. The area that you are mentioning is a bit hilly, has vast expanses of southern yellow pines, mineral deposits, and high humidity most of the year... I go through there frequently as well as on I-65 from Tennessee line to Mobile and even simplex mobile to moble with a 50 watt ERP only gets us 6 to 9 miles most of the time. The rated 'mileage' on bubble pack radios is an advertising ploy to sell radios. The mileage rating is statistically from the top of one mountain to another mountain with nothing in the way, so solar flares, no sun spots, no ambient static white noise and low humidity. Realistic mileages for most bubble pack radios unit to unit at street level is about a mile or two on a good day. If you are hitting the repeater from around I-59 mile markers 69-70, that's about all that you can expect without going to a 25 to 50 watt moble unit and a 5.6 db gain mobile antenna. Wish that we had better news for y'all.