"Brenda Ann" wrote in message
...

"KB9WFK" wrote in message
news
How do you define "a few miles"? Like I said in another post, I can
go 18 miles on my 7 Watt 2 Meter HT. Put a decent antenna on it and I
can talk a lot further. Our club repeater has over a 50 mile range
and only puts out 25 Watts.
Depending on usage, our repeater can go 4 or 5 days with no outside
power.

KB9WFK

I was able to hit a 'local' repeater with my HTX-202 using only the stock
antenna from a distance in excess of 50 miles. This was from a place in
the
valley west of Salem, OR to a hillside east of Vancouver, WA. This was
using
5 watts for clean copy. If one station is in a good location, even an HT
can get very good range on 2m.



The key element is antenna height. If the repeater antenna is high enough,
you can get quite good distances. Or if your own antenna is high enough,
same thing. Naturally if both antennas are high, possible distances
increase.

On the other hand, rubber duck antenna to rubber duck antenna at ground
level, 2 to 5 miles will generally be the limit.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE