I have a lot of different radios. It comes down to what you are looking for. For real comms, an HF rig is preferable. They are expensive. But, we have had many outages where fiber is cut to our island and cellular, landline, internet, and 911 is all down. I can then use an HF rig, laptop or android, and software called winlink, and email anyone. I have done this multiple times over the last year since we have had so many outages. But again, it is very expensive. An HF rig can reach further than a little handheld. A handheld isnt much use unless you have repeaters in your area. So, the answer is complicated and hard to answer in a nostr response 😉

ham can be used for p2p or through relays / repeaters. aprs is typically done through a repeater, or digipeater. this is essentially a gateway to the internet that you can send and rx info from. data modes like email can also be sent and received p2p. nvk sent a bitcoin TX over hf ham radio across the country from Canada. I myself am working on a nostr over ham client, using HF frequency data bands to get notes, post to relays and eventually zap.