RadioBanter - View Single Post - best setup for vehicle to base communication seperated by 100 to 500miles?

[email protected] · July 29th 09, 04:10 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew

On Jul 29, 12:24*am, Ian Jackson
wrote:
In message , Tim Wescott
writes

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:48:40 -0700, wrote:

On Jul 28, 3:54*pm, Ian Jackson
wrote:
In message , Geoffrey S.
Mendelson writesIan Jackson wrote:
Agreed. Unless there are any hills in the way, legal 27MHz CB should
get you a reliable 5 to 10 miles and, in the USA, I believe is a lot
more popular than elsewhere, and you could well be within range of
other CB users.

From what I have read it is very popular in the EU which has far less
limitations on what you can do with it. There seems to be no practical
limitation on equipment and power, I often see articles about people
using 100 watt ham rigs, transmitting FM and packet data.

Not legally! In the UK, CB is limited to 4W of FM. Most other European
countries are very similar, although some do also allow SSB (and maybe
even AM?).

However, that's almost irrelevant, a 5 watt rig, even a 1970' handheld
with channels 9,14 and 19 will do, a 40 channel ssb rig would almost
be too much.

A handheld on a whip antenna might get you 20 miles but, more likely,
2.

To keep it almost on topic, if you were to buy a long whip antenna,
fold it over, (run it horizontaly), and connect it to an autotuner,
you could use it for CB and NVIS ham communication.

NVIS is an interesting mode of communication, it uses vertical
skywaves to get wider range local communication from HF radio.

I don't think that you get much NVIS on the higher HF amateur bands.
However, you certainly do on 80m, where (at least in the UK) most
horizontal antennas are rarely much higher than 30' or 40'. The RF goes
straight up, and (if there's anything up there to reflect it back)
straight down again. In summer daytime, the RF tends to get absorbed by
the low-level D-layer (rather than reflected), so ranges are short, and
signal levels poor. This disperses at night, and the much-higher
F-layer allows a longer-range 'bounce' - even for signals with
high-angle radiation. Most really long distance stuff is via vertical
antennas, which are notoriously poor for relatively short-distance
working (beyond groundwave range). However, above around 5 or 6MHz,
high-angle signals tend to go straight through the ionosphere, and are
lost for ever.

It may all be a moot point anyway. If you join a club they will
probably tell you what equipment you need. They probably standardized
on something readily available without a license such as CB's, FRS or
GMRS, or possibly if they thought no one would notice VHF marine
radios (which are illegal to use on land, but required for almost
anything that floats).

I don't want to be a 'misery-guts', but I would be a bit circumspect
about the idea of 'getting into amateur radio' because you want to be
able talk to the folks back home when you are on holiday. If you have
no previous experience of the characteristics of the amateur bands,
equipment, antennas etc, it's highly unlikely that you will be very
successful. To avoid disappointment, it might be best to stick to
tried-and-tested technology. On the other hand, why not simply forget
about the folks at home, enjoy your holiday, and take up amateur radio
when you get back!
--
Ian

Is it just me or is there ALWAYS someone on this group explaining why
somebody else should not try something or do something? How on earth is
anyone supposed to learn anything if they only do what they have
knowledge and experience in? This is what college does to people, makes
them extremely wary of learning things on their own or seeing other
people attempt to do so.

So you're explaining why I shouldn't go to college?

Hey, thanks!

I think that the OP is misinterpreting my comments! Trying to keep
regular communication via HF radio - and especially HF amateur radio -
can be very disappointing, especially at times like now, when there are
virtually no sunspots to help propagation go with 'a bit of a zing'
(sorry if I'm being too technical!).

It is indeed great fun to try and keep regular communication schedules,
but I wouldn't take up amateur radio just to be able to talk to family
and friends while on holiday - especially if you are going to set out on
your holiday before you have had time to gain some experience about
which bands (and which frequencies in the bands) to use, which times of
day are best, which type of antenna you need to use etc.

There's a bit more to amateur radio than buying an off-the-shelf 100W
multiband transceiver and an antenna (or antennas), connecting
everything together, powering up and pressing the mic PTT button. But
I'm sure the OP is already fully aware of this. I'm just a bit concerned
that his planned debut into amateur radio might prove a little
disappointing, and deter him from progressing further in the noble art.
I'm certainly not trying to dissuade him.
--
Ian- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Ahhh...I see now. Understood!