To get those outrageous mileage claims ("up to a zillion miles") the testing
lab or the manufacturer probably finds two accessible mountain peaks that
distance apart.

In the Phoenix area, you can talk from the White Tank mountains (8 SW of
Phoenix) to the big mound (about 3000' feet above the desert) in Tucson on a
few miliwatts!

Fountain Hills to Mt. Humphrey is something like 45 miles (easy to eyeball
on any clear day) and can be covered with well under .5w ! So can I say
that my 100mw tuna can homebrew radio with it's 9V batter power is a '45
mile radio' ?
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.._._.


"General Mobile Radio Service |nformation" wrote in
message ...
wrote in :


this is why in the ARS reeaters play such a vital funtion iworking
with units of similar power since I have 300mw 70 cm ham unit (just
before FRS and of similar power to FRS) and yet I can reach a repeater
2'5 mile from that is high and baove much obstructions and therby
reach everbody else using the same repater
http://kb9rqz.blogspot.com/


Oh definitely so! A 5-watt UHF HT with a half-wave antenna can't even
make
it 25 miles simplex. I can't see how Cobra and the other manufacturers
can
make such claims with power outputs below 1 watt and a unity-gain antenna.