It's real easy to get your Technician class license in the US, which will get you limited line of sight range via VHF/UHF and a few other misc. bands. General class unlocks High Frequency operation which allows you to talk around the globe with the right radio.
For my field operations, I use a handheld 12V battery pack and a (tr)uSDX, a souped-up ATMega platform that does QRP (<=5W power) operations via CW (Morse code) and SSB (voice). It's the cheapest radio out there that will reliably do (passable) quality SSB, and it's real handy to have something so tiny and light when I'm heading out to hike up a mountain.
This is everything I take into the field, and have talked to people states and countries away when geomagnetic conditions were favorable (being on top of a mountain helps haha): https://i.imgur.com/HOx5buc.jpeg
Full kit breakdown: https://imgur.com/gallery/ultralightish-tr-usdx-sota-shack-b...