Charlie,

Scott has an excellent reply. I'd like to point out that any handheld radio
will start running out of steam at 5 or 6 miles. This is due to the lack of
height of the transmitting antenna. As you know, a lot of folks put base
station antennas up on towers. The reason being is that it gets the signal
up away from nearby objects and also increases their distance to what is
called 'radio horizon'. Radio horizon is the distance over flat ground (or
water) from the transmitting (receiving) antenna to the point where the
radio wave hits the ground/water due to the curvature of the earth. A
simple formula to figure your range is take the height of the antenna from
the ground (on an HT, 5 feet would likely be good as you're holding it up to
your face) in feet (5 in this example). Double that number (10) and then
take the square root (a bit over 3). That is the range of the radio to
radio horizon. This will give you a bit over 3 miles. Now, as long as a
second station's radio horizon overlaps or touches yours, you will have
communications (assuming no big obstruction between you). The other station
will have a bit over 3 miles. Added together, that means 6 miles is likely
the limit (unless you climb a tree or something like that

FRS is a bit more limited, but the batteries will last longer at lower power
and the difference isn't going to be large under any normal circumstances.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim

"Charlie" wrote in message
m...
I hope that this is the right newsgroup for posting this question. I
wasn't sure where else to post it.

I am looking for a single FRS type radio to communicate with a group
of people who already have a radio. They are using motorola talkabout
radios, and I think the model number is t5620. I know that the model
number doesn't matter, just as long as the radio that I get has the
subchannels that they are using. It is my understanding that these
radios require a license. I found a single motorola talkabout radio at
Best Buy, but it has a 5-mile range capability. I ended up buying a
2-pair pack of the talkabouts that have a 2-mile range. If I return
the 2 pair pack and get a single at the 5-mile range, will I need to
apply for a license even if I am going to be communicating with
someone at 2 or 3 mile range?


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