Distance question

temchik

temchik

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Hi All,

I am a total newbie, having my Tech exam tomorrow, and I have been listening to the W1FY Framingham repeater on my Baofeng UV-5R HT. No license yet, so no TX from me :) but here's the question. I can hear the repeater loud and clear, but wondering if I will be able to reach it from a 5W handheld? It's 2.1 miles away. Not sure if there is a line of sight with the repeater antenna, I can't see it from where I am :) TX from inside the house is probably out of the question...

Anyone with a 5W handheld care to chime in with their experience?

Thanks!
 
Distance

temchik said:
Hi All,

I am a total newbie, having my Tech exam tomorrow, and I have been listening to the W1FY Framingham repeater on my Baofeng UV-5R HT. No license yet, so no TX from me :) but here's the question. I can hear the repeater loud and clear, but wondering if I will be able to reach it from a 5W handheld? It's 2.1 miles away. Not sure if there is a line of sight with the repeater antenna, I can't see it from where I am :) TX from inside the house is probably out of the question...

Anyone with a 5W handheld care to chime in with their experience?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes, you will be able to reach repeater.
Where I live repeater covers 50 miles and I can reach with my 5 watt HT on 2meters
K1RQS
 
Back when I lived in Grafton, I used to easily hit the '97 repeater in Paxton, about 13 miles away, with a 5W handheld. It's all about antenna, though. Back then, I was using a 1/4-wave ground plane mounted up in the attic and it served me well. You can easily make one with 5 19.1-inch pieces of wire soldered onto an SO-239 and cable. There are plans for one of these all over the internet.
 
Lol, solder is out of my reach for the moment :) I ordered a couple of highly praised Nagoya VHF/UHF antennas, one is manageable portable 8in and the other one is 15.6. They say it works wonders for 2m
 
Hmm, investigated the 1/4 wave antennas... looks very easy to make and cheap too. The only thing is - tuning it will be a problem without equipment. Without tuning there is a good chance it will not outperform my portables on a given frequency
 
temchik said:
Lol, solder is out of my reach for the moment :) I ordered a couple of highly praised Nagoya VHF/UHF antennas, one is manageable portable 8in and the other one is 15.6. They say it works wonders for 2m
Click to expand...

You'll be fine. Once you get talking the guys will give you plenty of ideas.
 
If the repeater is DFQ (full quieting) to your radio you'll probably be able to make it, you just need an on air report to make sure you're not "that guy". [laugh]


-Mike
 
Well, I passed my Tech and they said they were filing electronically now, so the call sign could appear as soon as noon tomorrow... fingers crossed.
 
temchik said:
Lol, solder is out of my reach for the moment :) I ordered a couple of highly praised Nagoya VHF/UHF antennas, one is manageable portable 8in and the other one is 15.6. They say it works wonders for 2m
Click to expand...

I just received a few Nagoya dualband antennas, they work excellent. Using on Baofeng UV-B6 portables and MURS motion alarms.
 
Something is happening at 2 local repeaters, does anyone know what it is? It's been 2 days now, sounds like heavy machinery, could it be digital? Basically non stop of this:



On Southborough and Holliston VHF
 
Last edited by a moderator:
temchik said:
Something is happening at 2 local repeaters, does anyone know what it is? It's been 2 days now, sounds like heavy machinery, could it be digital? Basically non stop of this:



On Southborough and Holliston VHF
Click to expand...


Multiple repeaters or just one? You may be picking up a transmission that is not going through the repeater.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mike508 said:
Back when I lived in Grafton, I used to easily hit the '97 repeater in Paxton, about 13 miles away, with a 5W handheld. It's all about antenna, though. Back then, I was using a 1/4-wave ground plane mounted up in the attic and it served me well. You can easily make one with 5 19.1-inch pieces of wire soldered onto an SO-239 and cable. There are plans for one of these all over the internet.
Click to expand...

'97 is a special case, that machine's got some ears on it. I could hit it from the HRO parking lot in Salem with a 5W HT if I held the HT over my car roof to get a better ground plane.
 
It seems I cannot, in fact, transmit voice over to my local repeaters. I setup 2 HTs tuned to the repeater and tried to announce myself over one of them. 70cm transmitted garbled crap, mostly static. 2m didn't even transmit anything but an open channel. I need an antenna....
 
temchik said:
It seems I cannot, in fact, transmit voice over to my local repeaters. I setup 2 HTs tuned to the repeater and tried to announce myself over one of them. 70cm transmitted garbled crap, mostly static. 2m didn't even transmit anything but an open channel. I need an antenna....
Click to expand...

How far are they? Did you have the PL tone set correctly?
 
Yes, PL is set correctly for both (it wouldn't open up otherwise, right?), but I double checked... they are about 2 miles away, but not sure if there is line of sight, I don't know how high the antennas are.

Carrier is detected and repeaters respond loud and clear. Voice is not coming through at all to the second radio. Oh well, there is virtually no activity on them anyway.
 
I'm nearby. The Hopkinton repeater is closer to me but if I understand these two repeaters they work together. There is a net on Sunday nights which is useful to see if everything is programed correctly.
 
Thank you for the chat, it appears it works just fine, I was all worked up for nothing. The antenna on my B5 is better suited for UHF, it seems, I will use that one for 70cm and the other 5R for 2m with a Nagoya 16in antenna...
 

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