I recall mention of HF repeaters used presumably for shorter range bands ("2 meter"?).
There are VHF and UHF repeaters (2 meter is VHF), but I'm not aware of any HF repeaters. Still, there are mechanisms for transmitting on VHF/UHF and having it go out on HF, a repeater of sorts, I suppose, but that's not the normal repeater type. And you have to be in range of the VHF/UHF portion to make this work.
Mostly the radios such as the BaoFeng are used to talk through repeaters (VHF or UHF, it's dual band) to other folks, though it is also used to talk to people nearby on simplex, much as you might do on a CB.
The VHF portion of the ham bands runs from 144-148 MHz (aviation com is 118-142 MHz), so similar propagation. UHF is around 446 MHz, so even more line of sight and more subject to attenuation from tree leaves, etc. The repeaters are generally where ever ham clubs (and a few individuals) have decided to locate them, typically on towers near cities or, in the Rockies, on mountains. There are a very few places (including the central Colorado Rockies and central New Mexico/Arizona) where a linked set of repeaters can let you talk a long ways, say from Denver to Grand Junction or from Albuquerque to Yuma, but those arrangements are scarce.
In addition to HTs, there are a variety of mobile rigs and antennas, covering virtually any portion of the bands, or even the whole spectrum, with enough different pieces. UHF mobiles typically are 40-60 watts transmit, while VHF is typically 50-75 watts and HF mobile is rarely more than 100 watts, though there are some mobile amps available to go beyond that.
A quarter wave VHF mobile antenna will be around 19 inches long, while UHF will be roughly 1/3 that. An HF antenna must be
electrically 1/4 of the band's typical wave length, so a 40 meter band antenna (vertical 1/4 wave) will be roughly 10 meters long, electrically, an 80 meter band antenna will be 20 meters long, and so forth. Of course those lengths are not practical when mobile so they've devised various coil mechanisms that make a much shorter (physically) antenna appear to be that electrical length, thus allowing them to be mounted on vehicles (they're still several feet -- as much as 8-10 feet for some).
From the Denver area, when mobile on HF, I've talked to the east coast and west coast (at different times), as well as the midwest and deep south. I've even heard (when conditions are right) South America and Japan.
But all these long haul things are only there sometimes, when propagation conditions are just so. Most days, from an hour after sunrise to late afternoon, I can talk on 20 or 40 meters to areas within a few hundred miles (if they're not too close), with varying results, and on 20 to most of the country, at one time or another, depending on the day.
To go much beyond what I mention above will take some time and study on your part to get more specific. As you may gather, a lot of this is hit or miss, depending on conditions at the time and the specific band (or sometimes even the specific part of the band) you're working. I've barely scratched the surface.