hello all,
What is the limit wireless hardware can be pushed to? I read on the forum about a 40 mile solution but now I can't find the post how viable is this?
taking into account the battery only lasts so long.
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That is a very broad question.
Radio propagation, power levels, antennas, frequencies, data rate, too many assumptions.
Most of the frequencies used by the gear you are most likely to employ functions best with line of sight.
Your best bet, if you want to push the limits, is to find a local HAM group and get them involved. They will know all about the properties of radio waves at different frequencies, about antenna theory, moon bounce, VHF skywave (ok, neither of those last two are useful for you)
More on target, when you get into the details, you'll find that radio wave propagation can be affected by large bodies of water and nearby fences, the time of day and solar conditions and many other things.
Local intermod/interfearance, unclean power, cheap antennas, less-than-ideal antenna placement all have an impact, one you can control. Outside of that, it depends on your frequency.... line of sight becomes increasingly a requirement the higher up you go in the spectrum, for the most part (orthogonal and bounce options aside, since you cannot rely on those, generally) and so you start looking for a good line of sight, better antennas, and more powerful transmitters/better receivers.
As with gravity, radio drops off with the square of the distance.
Your local HAM team know more about radio than just about anyone else you can talk to. There will be guys there who are using milliwatt transmitters to talk successfully clear around to the other side of the earth. Meanwhile, you might struggle to get your 1watt transmitter to power through two miles of sky. The properties of radio vary greatly depending on many factors. You can reasonably come up with a setup to communicate 100 miles or more, if you can scale back on the data rate a bit, but you might have to navigate the legalities of the spectrum, find the right gear or licenses. Or, on unlicensed or HAM bands, you might push out farther, even. But for off the shelf gear, the most common arrangements are likely to carry you out to about 2 miles, with any reliability, before you need to start engineering it specifically to do better.