The state of Florida has those cute little blue emergency call boxes all over the interstates and toll roads. These are hardened microwave linked radio networks that the state has allowed Amateurs to link repeaters into creating a statewide vhf/uhf network. Checkout the website and download and print th3 PDF of the towers, frequencies and pl tones. This system works great and was used during hurricane Matthew a couple weeks ago for a formal net with the county EOCs. www.sarnetfl.com 73Anything like this in California? http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/faq/faq71.htm Article from 2011 says they're dying out.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Highway-call-boxes-becoming-obsolete-2373660.php
(Dear Doc, what does "73" mean?)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen or read about any other states using a statewide radio network like SarNetFL. However, there are a lot of repeater systems that link towers. Where I live, we use a county wide system
WC4PEM that will allow a cheap, 5 watt handheld dual band ham radio like a
Boafeng cover a wide area. Another local system is the
NI4CE west central FL repeater system that covers several counties. Do a little search for your area and I'm sure you can find local systems and clubs that can guide you. I have more links on my homepage under a "Got Comms"link to a 2014 thread.
73 (which means "With Best Regards")