Easiest way to do long range radio is to either use shortwave (3 to 30 mhz) or have a network of repeaters which take an incoming signal and rebroadcast it. If you multiplex it, you can set in specific repeater towers to use. This handles power issues and multipath fading. Simplest explanation is that they're just 7 or 15 Mhz radios. 7 for night time communications, and 15 for daytime operations.
See,radio waves in the 3 to 30 mhz band are positively affected by the ionosphere. So instead of passing through them like say FM radio (87.7 to 108.5 mhz) or even your tv signal, they effectively bounce off this layer. However, the ionosphere has different intensities. With time of day being a major factor due to the sun causing particle ionization to occur at different layers than the layers during the night.
That's the easiest solution. A lot less infrastructure and all that's needed are radios with enough broadcast power (5-20 watts max) to accomplish this.
When he said "I should be able to connect here" he probably referred to the distance limitations inherent in radios as a whole. So if he is doing shortwave, an obstacle such as a mountain can affect reception. If he needed to travel a little bit south, he was effectively removing some obstacle. Or even north.
Knowing our girl, she probably opted for this as it's the easiest and least noticeable solution.