The furthest node I can reliably hit on Meshtastic is about 60 miles from me. Sporadically there’s a node I see 110 miles away.

With Meshcore I can sporadically hit something 300 miles away, but locally isn’t reliable because the density isn’t as good in my area. Too many dead spots.

Ultimately I’m going to use both, but I’m not putting up any meshcore infrastructure because it’s not FOSS and Meshtastic has more inertia here.

Buy two devices and flash both. See what your locals are doing.