Skip to main content
11 votes
Accepted

Difference between antennas for Wi-Fi vs. ham repeaters

In order to use the same antenna design at different frequencies, "all you need to do" is scale all elements of the antenna proportionally to the difference in wavelength. For example, if you take a ...
Kevin Reid AG6YO's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

What does an antenna range really mean?

With so many variables (antenna height, terrain, power, receiver sensitivity, frequency band, modulation mode, line loss, interference, time of day, other obstacles, (just to name a few)) such "...
Duston's user avatar
  • 959
6 votes

Can I communicate 40 miles away with a base setup

With 2 meter FM and common 50 W base or mobile transmitter power and plain vertical quarter wave antenna, range over flat ground to a similar station is roughly twenty-five miles, or forty km (limited ...
Zeiss Ikon's user avatar
  • 4,145
6 votes

How far does a watt equal in range in the FM band?

This is a link budget question. Transmit power is just one factor: others are terrain, antennas, frequency, quality, noise, and so on. If we restrict the variables to typical values for FM commercial ...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Yagi vs Parabolic Dish for 2.4GHz Campus Wifi from 1,800ft away?

You can make a first order approximation by using typical WiFi ranges in combination with two free space path loss calculations. 802.11b/g has a typical indoor range of 150 feet. By calculating the ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
6 votes

Yagi vs Parabolic Dish for 2.4GHz Campus Wifi from 1,800ft away?

Depends on the particular Yagi or dish. Look for a published gain. Beware of low-quality manufacturers that publish erroneous data. Higher gain will correlate with higher probability of working. Point-...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
6 votes

Radio Range vs. Frequency

This is an interesting question and while we may not be able to get to an exact answer, we can certainly explore the issues to consider. First we start by calculating a primitive link budget. The ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
5 votes
Accepted

Can I estimate range of a low power transmission based on power (in mW)?

When a transmitter and receiver antenna are in line of sight with one another, we can calculate the effective loss of the path based on the distance between the transmitter and receiver antenna, the ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
5 votes

Increasing communication range by boosting output and input power

Is it possible to do without the power amplifier at TX ... by using a high gain antenna for RX? It is. You need another 27 dB (37-10) of antenna gain in addition to whatever you included in your ...
Graham G8URP's user avatar
5 votes

What's the realistic SSB reception range for 25W on 20m and 40m?

Depends on ionospheric propagation conditions (sun spots, solar flux index, time-of-day, direction, and etc.). People have completed QSOs at well over a thousand miles with a few milliwatts in CW. A ...
hotpaw2's user avatar
  • 13.6k
5 votes

What's the realistic SSB reception range for 25W on 20m and 40m?

All things are possible (if a bit harder). The CQ WW SSB contest has a QRP category (maximum of 5 watts of power), and the top scorers in that category in 2020 worked more than 100 countries in 48 ...
hobbs - KC2G's user avatar
  • 13.2k
5 votes
Accepted

How to predict radio range of a product?

They use range specs to market VHF/UHF handhelds to people who don't understand radio, but those specs are essentially useless. Half a watt will easily go hundreds of km if there's nothing in the way, ...
hobbs - KC2G's user avatar
  • 13.2k
4 votes

Can I communicate 40 miles away with a base setup

For VHF or UHF, your range is mostly going to be limited by terrain, like Zeiss Ikon writes. On flat terrain the radio horizon can be estimated by a simple formula, but that's not of much use if the ...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
4 votes

Distance of Received Signals

The earlier iterations of the Chinese radios had their issues. This has gotten notably better in the last year or two but people largely dismiss minor issues since they are so inexpensive. So it could ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
3 votes

Could I expect 12 mile range with the GXT1000VP4 radios?

These radios will operate largely on a line of sight basis with a slight boost from refraction. This is known as the radio line of sight. It is given as: $$D\approx1.41\sqrt{H} \tag 1$$ where D is ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
3 votes
Accepted

Could I expect 12 mile range with the GXT1000VP4 radios?

In Suburban Pennsylvania how much range could I expect from these wallow talkies? Well, this if very hard to answer, other than "it depends". If you have an absolute clear day, high pressure, no ...
Edwin van Mierlo's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

RF Coverage range doesn't improve inspite of increased Tx power

Transmit range involves a number of factors. Propagation At 100 MHz your signal range will be largely limited by line of site (LOS) although you may experience some fringing and reflections. This ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k
3 votes

Distance of Received Signals

The manufacturing processes used for this brand of radio aren't very consistent. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all if one worked better than the other. You might also notice differences in how well ...
mrog's user avatar
  • 1,023
3 votes
Accepted

Amateur Radio Long Distance Data Communication

The most accessible way to get digital communication at that speed is WiFi. You could use unmodified consumer equipment, or getting a ham license would allow you to use frequencies not usually ...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
3 votes

Increasing communication range by boosting output and input power

Amplification at the receiver is not equivalent to amplifying at the transmitter. This is because at the receiver, the signal is mixed with signal and noise. An amplifier can not distinguish between ...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
3 votes

What's the realistic SSB reception range for 25W on 20m and 40m?

Can one reasonably make SSB contacts with 25W? Yes you can, I have. In fact I have transatlantic QSO's with 10 W. Already mentioned prior: the lower the power the more the challenge, and more it ...
Edwin van Mierlo's user avatar
2 votes

Can I communicate 40 miles away with a base setup

At 40 miles (65 km), assuming that terrain doesn't get in the way, you have a choice between HF and VHF/UHF. For HF the radios are expensive, maybe \$600 for a good used one, and a simple wire ...
rclocher3's user avatar
  • 9,320
2 votes

Cobra hand held 50wxst aftermarket antenna

If you are going to buy an antenna designed for use with that handheld, then it should work fine. Otherwise, you need to make sure that you get an antenna designed for the frequencies used by the ...
Scott Earle's user avatar
  • 4,669
2 votes
Accepted

Understand Radio Pattern of a WIFI antenna

The numbers arranged vertically are decibels. They tell you the relative radiant intensity in each direction. For example if in one particular direction you read 0 on that scale, and in another ...
Phil Frost - W8II's user avatar
2 votes

Amateur Radio Long Distance Data Communication

In a word, No. For 1Mb/s you'd need a line-of-sight connection, so over a 180-mile path, you would need multiple hops. The alternative would be satellite communications but the ham satellites have ...
Duston's user avatar
  • 959
2 votes
Accepted

How far does a watt equal in range in the FM band?

This depends in your intended communication. Are you trying to hit a fixed receiver, in which case you can aim an antenna to that receiver? or are you trying to communicate with a handheld or other ...
Tyzoid's user avatar
  • 210
2 votes

What is the power increase required to double the range of RADAR?

I feel the answers here have gotten too complex. The simple answer to OP's question is for his radio transmission example there is only 1-way propagation hence the inverse square law. For radar ...
user20224's user avatar
2 votes

What is a link budget, and how do I make one?

Let me take the later question out of the title. how do I make one? By using a tool, such as Radio Mobile Online Help is here, you don't need a free account to read it This is a free tool, and ...
Edwin van Mierlo's user avatar
2 votes

Amateur Radio Long Distance Data Communication

What you are looking for does not 100% exist yet. However there is something close to it: AREDN , Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network https://www.arednmesh.org/ It is mesh networking using Wifi ...
Brian's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes

LoRa Radio RFM96/98 SX1276/8 configuration settings for Longest Range

If your interest is simply to increase range, the metrics to watch on the tool are the "Link Budget" and the "Receiver Sensitivity" (lower right screen). These two numbers will change in concert. You ...
Glenn W9IQ's user avatar
  • 18.6k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible