Simplex Low Band portable coverage

[MT2000 man]

Just out of curiosity, what are you guys ( the very few who still run Low Band ) getting portable to portable with a Low Band portable ? ( say, 40-50MHZ range ) Running UHF here for a LONG time. On talkaround, I usually get about a mile if I'm lucky from portable to portable, I was just curious as to what range a Low Band portable to portable would get ? Seeing a ton of MT1000 Low Banders going for cheap has spiked an interest.

[AL7OC]

It would depend on the antenna and the terrain. Low band has very poor penetration into any steel reinforced structure, so if you are in an urban environment, don't expect much.

Helical antennas aren't that great on low band. Some loaded telescoping antennas might do a little better. In rural environments, I think you would be able to get a few miles. The antennas will be the limiting factor in rural areas.

I belonged to two different rural fire departments back east. One operated on 33.98 and the other on 46.12. Low band is just fine for wide area coverage without repeaters, provided that you have decent antennas and don't have to deal with lots of steel surrounding you. Ditto for experience on the 6m ham band. We could work line of site base-mobile about 35 miles on 5 watt Ten-Tec ham kit-radios. Respectable antennas were the key.

Pierre

[mike m]

I have both 6 and 10 mt1000 ht's and I tune each antenna for the limited range that they are capable of covering. On ground wave ht to ht the range is only 4 1/2 miles on the 10 meter model to a similar power green radio ht that a friend uses.

When talking to a remote base with the remotes antenna at 45 feet the remote hears the 10 meter 6 watt mt1000 at 12 miles. 6 meters is somewhat better with 5 to 6 miles to my friends 6 meter green radio ht using a similar sized antenna.

To a remote base with the antenna at 55 feet the remote hears the 6 mt1000 at 19 miles and into a repeater at 1500 feet elevation I can talk 55 miles with the 6 meter ht whereas a similar 10 meter repeater is not useable until around 27 miles out.

Don't try and stretch your operating bandwidth of the OEM duck antenna with excessively wide spaced simplex channels otherwise performance will drop off considerably when operating ht to ht. As to the oem antenna, i can get close to 970 kHz bandwidth on simplex tx at less than 2:1 on my 6 meter antenna, if u are using repeaters at reasonable distance then I have been able to operate using 1.7 MHz split repeaters just fine where the antenna vswr is over 2:1.

This operating is in a city environment with rolling hills with elevation from 150 feet to 650 feet and a lot of 100 foot forest/trees but not many tall buildings.

On 10 meter frequencies stay more than 10 feet from any metal such as a vehicle or building and on 6 meters you can half this distance and u won't see any serious antenna blocking and don't even waste our time operating in a vehicle unless it's an open boat.
Mike/wb8vlc

[KitN1MCC]

i Recently picked up a Low band Portable for Work. the Coverage is ok. We run a 7 site Repeater system. It is ok in Down Town new haven outside but once you get inside no good. its great out in the sticks.