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The planar/panel provides a wider beam - good for multiple connections. Maybe 15 to 100 degrees at the extremes depending on design. Two designs can look identical from the outside but be very different. They're relatively expensive.
A cantenna isn't nearly as flexible for beam width but is great for directional use. It's simple and extremely cheap. They can be made with a chunk of PVC, allthread, and some washers. You may get away with a stock transmit/receiver pair and one of these at each end.
A parabolic can be very directional, say ~10 degrees or less, and they're bulkier, but the gain is hard to beat. They're expensive new but used versions are plentiful and cheap.
As for transceiver heat, the cheap high wattage versions will run warm, especially if you let the voltage drop. Use a regulated supply. If it might sit in the sun during your sessions I'd consider a shield, maybe adding a larger heatsink or a small fan. Anyway, there's a good chance you won't need more than a basic transceiver pair with the right antenna at each end. You're sort of at the edge so environment is important. Trees, weeds, utilities, height of antennas, and how much time you want to spend aiming.
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
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