I know at least on of you guys knows about ham radio............

What I want to know is how far do the handhelds reach with no repeater.....
I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either

Say worse case scenario mnts and heavy woods.......

Quoted: I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either

You may not like it...but that is the correct answer.  VHF radio waves travel in straight lines, line of sight, if you can't seen them, you might not be able to talk to them.  Then there are the differences in talkies, some are as low as 250mw, that's 1/4 of 1 watt, some are 2 or 3 watts, and some are 5 watts, the more watts output, the farther it reaches, and the faster it drains the battery.  On terrain that is fairly flat with trees it's probably going to be 2 or 3 miles for one handy talkie to another handy talkie, if you are in hilly terrain, it might only be 1/2 mile, sometimes even less.  There is only one correct answer, like it or not, it depends on the terrain.

John
WB5ONL since 1975

Quoted: Quoted: I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either You may not like it...but that is the correct answer.  VHF radio waves travel in straight lines, line of sight, if you can't seen them, you might not be able to talk to them.  Then there are the differences in talkies, some are as low as 250mw, that's 1/4 of 1 watt, some are 2 or 3 watts, and some are 5 watts, the more watts output, the farther it reaches, and the faster it drains the battery.  On terrain that is fairly flat with trees it's probably going to be 2 or 3 miles for one handy talkie to another handy talkie, if you are in hilly terrain, it might only be 1/2 mile, sometimes even less.  There is only one correct answer, like it or not, it depends on the terrain. John WB5ONL since 1975

well beleive it or not that's a better answer than what I've got in the past

If thats the case I wouldn't be any better of than I am with frs radios
what a bummer

That all depends on what you want to do. Not all HAM radios are VHF. I have an HT that covers numerous bands, military, public safety, aviation, and ham as well. If you were needing some help, you'd have a better chance getting out on the HAM radio than an FRS radio. For a "me and a buddy going hunting in the woods" scenario and assuming you weren't going to be very far away from each other, then FRS would probably suit your needs. You know you need to go over into "a different forum" on this same website to ask that question though.

HAM radio has a lot of advantages over FRS but, it really depends on your application. Also, say I was at a campsite in remote southern Oklahoma. Say my truck is parked at the site but I'm out on foot with my HT (walkie talkie). Did you know I can use my truck as a repeater? Also since both the the HT and truck radios are multi band I can transmit on VHF and have the truck send the signal out on the same or even UHF if need be? This is called cross band repeating.

So, effectively, now that HT is transmitting on say 5 watts to a mobile that can retransmit on 50 watts (or 100 watts if I am using a different radio). I can reach a long way with 100 watts.  

Quoted:


What I want to know is how far do the handhelds reach with no repeater.....
I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either


If you are lucky, about as far as a Wolf bullet will go!

Quoted: That all depends on what you want to do. Not all HAM radios are VHF. I have an HT that covers numerous bands, military, public safety, aviation, and ham as well. If you were needing some help, you'd have a better chance getting out on the HAM radio than an FRS radio. For a "me and a buddy going hunting in the woods" scenario and assuming you weren't going to be very far away from each other, then FRS would probably suit your needs. You know you need to go over into "a different forum" on this same website to ask that question though. Beleive it or not i've tried to ask this questions in that forum in the past on diffrent threads.... I always got the terrain answer...... HAM radio has a lot of advantages over FRS but, it really depends on your application. Also, say I was at a campsite in remote southern Oklahoma. Say my truck is parked at the site but I'm out on foot with my HT (walkie talkie). Did you know I can use my truck as a repeater? I had no idea Also since both the the HT and truck radios are multi band I can transmit on VHF and have the truck send the signal out on the same or even UHF if need be? This is called cross band repeating. So, effectively, now that HT is transmitting on say 5 watts to a mobile that can retransmit on 50 watts (or 100 watts if I am using a different radio). I can reach a long way with 100 watts.

I need hands on demonstrations .......
I am easily confused

Your guys answers are much more helpful......
I have frs alread and it won't do what I want it to

since I got you talkin ......... if i had a hand held (HT i have no idea what that is/means) like your talking about  is it likely that I could talk to a base station (not sure if thats the right term but something at the house)  say 10 miles away without repeaters in ruff terain.........

My intended application would be to talk with people i know as far away as possble...where it's not likely their would be repeaters..

If you can't tell i'm copletely ignorant as to what the terminoligy is or what diffrent bands/freq are capable of......all help is greatly apreciated...

When we meet some time I have a radio i'd like to show someone who knows  I have a
Arkansas special cb...... i bought in hotsprings from suposedly the best cb guy in town ....
I've been told it probably isn't legal to use in it's current state since very few if anyone is licensed to convert ham radios to cb's ............ I'm not sure i got that right but thats the jest of what i was told.......

Quoted: Quoted: What I want to know is how far do the handhelds reach with no repeater..... I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either If you are lucky, about as far as a Wolf bullet will go!

i know your a ham oink oink but do you actually know anything about HAM radio's

Frequency Modulation (FM) is only good for line of site. When dealing with smaller powered handset radios, you are limited with the size of the power source. The bigger the battery or power source, the farther you can go. But it makes the unit that much less portable.
All of the military radios (from what one of my boys told me) used in Iraq communicate through satellites. The satellites pick up the smaller powered radio, and passes it on like a repeater as TwoBravo said.
If you can come up with satcom  (satellite communications) cell phones, your reach will be anywhere you want to go. But you won't have much money left, those damn things cost out your ass!
Then you couldn't buy anymore Wolf Ammo!

Ah, forget that Arkansas special stuff. More headache than it's worth (from what I'm gathering). In a perfect world, I'd be able to refer you to some local experts (although I learned today that EX=former and SPURTS=short bursts, so..be careful with EXSPURTS) around here that could help. The local HAM clubs for Tulsa are TARC www.w5ias.com and  www.tulsahamradio.org is TRO. They have some good information on them. The W5IAS linked supersystem is pretty cool. TRO has forums and can probably answer questions better.

I forgot what else I was going to tell you..but ask away.

I know, I know!

HT stands for Handy-Talkie, or handheld radio. HAM lingo.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: What I want to know is how far do the handhelds reach with no repeater..... I don't want that vague ass it depends on terrain answer either If you are lucky, about as far as a Wolf bullet will go! i know your a ham oink oink but do you actually know anything about HAM radio's

Pork TV,

I have used 5 watt hams for a few years. It depends on a lot. Terrain, obstructions and even weather. Most of the time 2-3 miles is easily managable. Get a good high gain antenna and you can stretch that
more. If a repeater is available for all means use it. You can many times incease your range. I remember  years ago a Bixby officer was chasing some one and I was listening. I had information about the subject  I had a UHF handheld radio and esily hit there repeater even though I was well into
Osage county up by black dog fire dept.  There are a lot of amatuer repeaters out there that cost nothing  to use more than having your ham radio ticket.

Quoted: ......I remember  years ago a Bixby officer was chasing some one and I was listening......

I was going to say, I don't think they do that anymore do they? I think they've only got a couple of officers over the age of 23 or so now. It's a good thing you were listening, I hope you continue to do that. I don't think their dispatch can handle much more than 1-2 things at a time. Thanks to someone for cutting back a growing cities dispatch to 1 person!