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Those new Midlands are not bad radios for this task. If you are looking to talk from house to house, as in base stations, then 15 Watts with a good outside antenna would do the job just fine. If you want to talk from car to base, then that would work too. From car to car, you would be better off to get the 40 Watts radios, and it still might be tough in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, however there are good repeaters in the area that you may ask to use. For emergency communications, don't rely on repeaters. 40 Watt radios with good antennas will have no problem doing 20 Miles from base to base, or car to base. At your base stations, you might want to keep a spare 12 Volt gel battery around, charged up ready to use in case of power failure, then you will still have communications. Don't forget, your GMRS license already covers your whole extended family.