I went to Fry's on Friday afternoon with my girlfriend, I picked up a copy of Gordon West's book for studying for the Technician License for Amateur (Ham) Radio from the FCC.

Those of you wondering what Ham Radio is or looking for more information should consult Google. In short, it is "short wave radio communications" or just a more powerful form of CB radio.
The 2m band (144-148MHz) looks to be the first range that I will delve into. I urge you to check out Ham radio, especially the Technician license. 2-meter handhelds can be found on ebay for under $50.

update: I picked up my radio today (April 11). It's a Yaesu FT-10R, 5W output. I bought it from a guy on ebay that lives about 15min from my parent's house. He also threw in a free external antenna. The radio is also modified to reach up to ~175MHz. I test next week. So far, so well.

update #2:...just installed my DTMF keypad for the radio. Makes frequency navigation much easier. I'm quite pleased, and the install was super-simple. Took me maybe 3 minutes to install. Awesome little radio.