Can someone point me to some documentation on the effective range of 2 and 5 watt vhf portables.
I am with a Volunteer ire Department and keep getting radio's and pagers in for repair and can't find anything wrong with them. They think there pagers should work all the time up to 50 miles away and the portables should be able to talk to each other through hills and holes for 20 miles.
I think if I can show the somthing on paper they might beleive me.
Thanks
Portable Radio effective Range
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Your almost asking if anone can walk on water. If there was an easy answer to your question, the Motorola sales force would be doing a whole lot better in having a system work the first time when they sell it.
You might try asking those people that have the range questions, how well they hear the base station. If they are just able to hear the base station, there is no way that a portable is going to be able to communicate back.
Most base stations are using a 50 to 100 watt transmitter. You can't compare that talk range to a 2 or 5 watt portable. The portable antenna is not that good. Depending on how the portable is held and which way you facing when trying to talk, effects if the base will even hear the portable.
As for the pagers trying to get a 50 mile range, who ever told you that must have been smoking something real strong. The antenna in most pagers is just not that good. You will be lucky if you do as good as a portable listening to your dispatcher.
Then you have to considder that most pagers are worn on the belt. Chances are your going to have your body between the transmitter and the pager. This acts like a big fat loss. No punn intended. The body is not a very good antenna.
Maybe not the direct info you were looking for, but maybe it will help.
Jim
You might try asking those people that have the range questions, how well they hear the base station. If they are just able to hear the base station, there is no way that a portable is going to be able to communicate back.
Most base stations are using a 50 to 100 watt transmitter. You can't compare that talk range to a 2 or 5 watt portable. The portable antenna is not that good. Depending on how the portable is held and which way you facing when trying to talk, effects if the base will even hear the portable.
As for the pagers trying to get a 50 mile range, who ever told you that must have been smoking something real strong. The antenna in most pagers is just not that good. You will be lucky if you do as good as a portable listening to your dispatcher.
Then you have to considder that most pagers are worn on the belt. Chances are your going to have your body between the transmitter and the pager. This acts like a big fat loss. No punn intended. The body is not a very good antenna.
Maybe not the direct info you were looking for, but maybe it will help.
Jim
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Tom in D.C.
- Posts: 3859
- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: Progreso soup can with CRT
If I were you, I would ask my local Motorola rep to stop in to talk to these folks in a group. This would give them a little education with reason to believe it coming from the people who make and sell what they use. At the same time you might get a little peace out of it. For what it's worth, When I asked my local rep about portable range ( On Simplex ) , he quoted "2 to 3 miles depending on terrain". This was referring to 4 watt UHF models. He indicated 5 watt VHF models would fare "marginally better".