Posted: 2/14/2008 4:35:35 PM EDT
| For those of you who have one, can you communicate from within buildings? I am being told that our local firehouse can not receive 2meter handheld signal from inside. |
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It depends entirely on the construction of the building. Buildings with lots of metal in the walls block RF pretty effectively. The spacing and arrangement of the steel has a big effect, too. Much as the spacing of the elements of an antenna determine its effectiveness, the spacing of girders, uprights, elevator shafts, etc. will determine what frequencies are blocked and which frequencies are "invisible" to the structure. For example, in some older highrise buildings, 440 MHz works quite well, while 2 meters (144-148 MHz to the unwashed) is virtually unusable. ETA It is these 'technical stuff answers' that makes radio so interesting and frustrating; so much of the time the answer is, "It depends." |
