When FRS radios first came out I had a pair. They are
Posted on: November 28, 2020 at 09:29:39 CT
Tigrrrr!
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restricted to 500mw of power. Went out to western Kansas pheasant hunting and I took those, as well as some 5 watt radios on licensed freqs to make comparisons. One of the guys going was a customer of mine with a dairy operation in Ballwin KS and he had a 30 watt mobile radio in his truck with a 5db gain antenna on the roof, giving his 30 watt radio the same power output as a 75 watt mobile.
With the FRS radios, out on I-70 on average rolling terrain, we could talk 2 miles. With the 5-watt portables, we could talk 2 miles. With a portable to the mobile radio, we could talk 5 miles. If I had another mobile, we could probably do 10-15 miles.
So the ads saying GMRS radios can talk 15~20 miles are bullshìt. No way to reach that with a handheld radio without a repeater with an antenna several hundred feet in the air.
There is a HAM 440 repeater on KMBC's tower at 23rd & Topping. Its antenna is 1000' above average terrain. I can hit it with a 5-watt handheld in Lenexa.