On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 17:47:57 -0400, "Bill Crocker"
wrote:

Most all the hand-held amateur radio equipment, is almost useless without
the aid of a repeater station.

That is a rather broad statement. It depends greatly on where you
live (or are) in relation to where you want to talk to. I live in a
very ham dense area and can make dozens of contacts on simplex.

I don't know how many repeaters are backed
up by emergency power supplies. I would hope most of them, but if they're
not, don't plan on reaching anyone more than a couple miles away.

Glancing through the repeater directory, I'd guess about a third of
them.
How do you define, "a couple of miles"? My Icom T2H (a 7 Watt hand
held) can make it from my house to the repeater 18 miles away. If I
can hit that repeater then I can talk to anyone between it and me on
simplex, and that is with the rubber duck antenna. Using a home made
twin-lead J-Pole antenna I talked on the repeater from downtown
Chicago which is a 36 miles trip.
On 2 Meters, get your antenna high and you can really reach out.
Height is Might.


H.F. equipment, on the other hand, is usually at least 50~100 watts, and has
the ability to reach extremely long distances, without the need of a
repeater.

Wattage doesn't mean a whole lot with HF because it isn't the power
that enables the longer distances. My 2 Meter rigs at home are 50
Watts. Actually, most HF rigs are 5 to 10 Watts and an external amp
will be used to increase power. Depending on conditions, you can talk
all 50 states with 10 Watts on HF.


When you think about it, standard C.B. radio equipment should do well,
providing there is someone available on the other end.

IF you are in an area with CB users and IF they are helpful and not
just kids wanting to screw around. Also, CB, being limited to 4 Watts
is typicallty very short range. If you are in an area with a lot of
CB users that are 'adult' and use it as a tool then it may be the
proper answer. Same for FRS and GMRS. Where I am, CB is worthless
due to the people that use it. If you can't top someone elses signal
then you aren't going to talk.


Bill Crocker

KB9WFK



"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'