GMRS vs Marine VHF
 

Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance would be between
(handhelds): a 5w GMRS vs. a 5w Marine VHF in mountain terrain
(ignoring legalities.)

Your comments are appreciated.

John wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance would be between
(handhelds): a 5w GMRS vs. a 5w Marine VHF in mountain terrain
(ignoring legalities.)

Your comments are appreciated.

Very Little I should think

except that Marine VHF would likely have a little better range away
from the Oceans or Great Lakes, due to the lack of other stations

"an_old_friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

John wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance would be between
(handhelds): a 5w GMRS vs. a 5w Marine VHF in mountain terrain
(ignoring legalities.)

Your comments are appreciated.

Very Little I should think

except that Marine VHF would likely have a little better range away
from the Oceans or Great Lakes, due to the lack of other stations

Would you care to expand on that please. How would the absence of other
stations influence the range?

interference????

Roger Conroy wrote:
"an_old_friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

John wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance would be between
(handhelds): a 5w GMRS vs. a 5w Marine VHF in mountain terrain
(ignoring legalities.)

Your comments are appreciated.

Very Little I should think

except that Marine VHF would likely have a little better range away
from the Oceans or Great Lakes, due to the lack of other stations

Would you care to expand on that please. How would the absence of other
stations influence the range?

a the firnges of ones range another signal can finish off the further
more distant one.

here of course the word range means usable range it will still travel
out as far but you will not be able to hear it under the other stations

John wrote:
Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance would be between
(handhelds): a 5w GMRS vs. a 5w Marine VHF in mountain terrain
(ignoring legalities.)

Your comments are appreciated.


Hi John,

You will get many comments about legalities, and some about antennas,
and some about radios.

If they don't mention the fact that Marine VHF (150-170 MHz) and GMRS
(460 MHz) have very different abilities, then you should not pay a lot
of attention to what else they say.

Many times, VHF and UHF act very similarly, and over water, that may be
more so, but if people who answer your post don't mention any of those
at first, then it means (at best) they didn't read your post. That
means that you should give their post as much credence as they gave yours.

They probably didn't even notice that you were asking about mountain
terrain. That is a big part of the question. OK, maybe it's 99% of the
question to consider. All the other stuff is interesting, but it
doesn't answer the question. My 2c only.

All the best,

Dave


p.s. If you would like to exchange email about this, my posting address
here will be good for 6 days or so. I'd be happy to give you my regular
email address if you want to talk about VHF vs. UHF in mountainous
territory. I live in NH where the state cops still use 46 MHz (low VHF,
covers the hilly "Granite State").

Try 2W VHF no-license MURS Service (which has no ERP limit).

Two 2W VHF rigs will perform as good as 5W GMRS UHF rigs in your
situation, when comparing like-gain antennas, and the batteries will
last twice as long!

(Oh, and don't even bother with those cheap-ass FRS/GMRS
integral-antenna hybrids, those are junk... I'm assuming you were
talking about a REAL GMRS radio with decent receiver specs and
replaceable/upgradeable antenna).

For more information on MURS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MURS-OPEN

- Stewart (N0MHS)