Post SHTF, .52 with100+ watts... or as many already have, 65 to 75 on high... with a good gain ground plane antenna up about 30 ft... should be able to talk 45+ miles line of sight... maybe more.

Horizontal polarization with a VHF dipole running VHF SSB, you can almost DOUBLE that, but not a lot of people have SSB rigs for 2M (think: Icom 706 family, which I used to run VHF SSB with and its a HOOT!)

EB