Joey wrote:
Hi,
I'm trying to determine if I could use 10 meters to contact a station
about 75 miles away with about 2500ft elevation of a couple sets of
hills in between with just simple antennas on either end. Perhaps a
10m dipole on one end and some kind of stealthy one on the other. I
assume this would have to be ground wave only given the distance and
current band conditions.
My parents are both techs so we're currrently limited to parts of 10m
as the lowest band and I'd like to have something reliable without
need repeaters for disaster comms. We actually only have a few single
hop VHF/UHF repeaters between us, though quite a few linked ones.
I've also thought of 6m due to smaller antenna requirements, but I'm
pretty sure this is too far...
Thanks!

Just off-hand, I would suspect for reliable and consistent
communications a three element yagi and ~100 watts on each end would
result in enjoyable rag chews ... same for 6m.

Height? More the better.

Seventy-five miles on omni antennas is very chancy, in my humble
opinion. But then, power/height would be the main variables, enough
height and power would certainly help.

Regards,
JS