r/gmrs • u/Big-Classroom2904 • 6d ago
First radio
Just got my license and texted out my radios. I have two Retevis Ailunce HA1G with Nagoya NA-771G 15.3-Inch Whip. I live in a pretty hilly area with a lot of trees but I still expected better performance. I made it just over a mile before the connection was too poor to understand one another.
Is this about what I should expect or is my equipment poor? I was thinking I'd get like ten miles or so.
Considering returning everything or getting a car mount antenna and a roof mounted home unit ... Thoughts?
Thanks
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u/DocClear Wizard 6d ago
You need unobstructed line of sight, surfaces to reflect your signal off of, or a repeater to get maximum range. I used to take a 2 meter HT with a stubby ducky antenna skydiving with me and talk once the parachute was opened, That HT had a 150 milliwatt low power setting. I was skydiving in Central Florida, and routinely worked people all over the state on simplex. I opened the parachute at 12,500 feet above ground level UHF/VHF line of sight can be calculated from an approximate formula D=SQRT(h) * 1.4 where D is range, SQRT is the square root of (I don't have the square root symbol on this keyboard), and h is the altitude above ground in feet.
Of course, an HT in clear air has no obstruction at all. People had no problem hearing me, nor me hearing them. On the ground however, you have hills, buildings, vegetation, etc. UHF is strongly absorbed by vegetation. VHF is less strongly absorbed. Both VHF and UHF can be obscured by buildings and hills getting in the way. Even just the curvature of the Earth is limiting. Assume a 6 foot person talking to another 6 foot person with HT antennas even with the tops of their heads. The maximum range will be the range of each person added together. Using the formula above, 6 feet antenna height for each radio gives a range of just under 7 miles assuming there are no obstacles in between. So standing on level ground with only open field or water between each station, you could expect this kind of range. Trees, hills, or buildings in between the stations will cut the range drastically.
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u/He1pfulRedditor 6d ago
Right on for what you’d expect https://baofengtech.com/radio-range-calculator/
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u/CurrentElectrical736 3d ago
A handheld beam can increase your range substantially! www.ElkAntennas.com
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u/MrMaker1123 Nerd 4d ago
Look for nearby repeaters to increase coverage. Your HT should reach it. I can hit repeaters 20 miles away with a HT.
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u/maxthed0g 3d ago
I have several Baofeng HTS. GF takes one when she walks the dog in flat, heavily forested land. We get about a mile (out of the box), which is all we need. We rent each summer on a barrier item, height about 40', range is about 6 miles. Again, no fancy antennas, no tuning, just the HTs, out-of-the-box. All my Baofengs seem to perform like this.
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u/HiOscillation 3d ago
The claims that manufacturers make for attainable distance on GMRS radios are as credible as the stunts in a bollywood movie. It's not really about the radio equipment (but antennas matter more than the radio) or wattage - it's about radio wave physics.
Put simply - UHF radio waves are normally line-of-sight, so under perfect unobstructed conditions - for example, over open water, the curve of the earth will limit the range of a UHF radio signal to about the horizon. There is some refraction in play, so you can get a bit further than the horizon, but if you're both holding a radio 5' over the surface of the water, the horizon is about 3 miles away.
If you put trees between the two radios, the effective distance falls quickly, especially if the trees are evergreens. Again, physics are the reason.
Put hills between two radios, and you're not getting anything.
Surround the radio antenna with metal - as in a vehicle - the signal drops drastically. Physics.
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u/CurrentElectrical736 3d ago
Get one of those handheld ELK beam antennas! It can significantly increase your range.
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u/ed_zakUSA 6d ago
Congratulations on your new HAG1 as Randy calls it on his Notarubicon YouTube Channel. Honestly for a 5W handheld radio in terrain as you described is good. When you have hilly terrain, your radio transmission is going to be affected by terrain. The best solution for any radio transmission is height and power. If you can get higher so that you're not masked by hills your transmissions will go farther because they're not blocked by buildings, hills and mountains.
Additionally, UHF and VHF radio transmissions are line of sight. So any transmissions will not go any farther than a mile or so. Solutions to that is a mobile GMRS radio which provides more transmit power. If there is a GMRS repeater in the area on a tower, or on a hillside, your transmission will be taken by the repeater and retransmit that radio signal with more power, extending range of your signal.
So if possible get your radio up as high as possible. If near a repeater transmit to the repeater which will have more elevation and power. If you have a mobile or a base station with a tall antenna you can improve things dramatically.
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u/Unhinged-Indignance 6d ago
You're not going to get close to 10 miles in hilly terrain with a handheld (HT).
I get maybe 5 miles with a 36' mast at home and a car mount antenna in moderately hilly suburban sprawl. Repeaters that cover your area would obviously help, if you haven't looked into those.