Quote:
Originally Posted by chris454bb
This is an amatuer radio? What kind of range do you get out of it? How is it in the bush compared to a VHF?
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Everything that is available commercially for two-way radios(frequency wise) is available in the amateur bands too. If you are using commercial (business band) VHF (~150mhz), the amateur equivalent is called 2meter which is about 140mhz. The power and wave characteristics are virtually identical, so you wouldn't have an advantage running one over the other. The thing about amateur is that it is for strictly non-commercial personal use. So that is a major limit to what you can do with it. It basically limits it to radio enthusiasts talking to other radio enthusiasts.
As far as power goes, I know that the business band "red dot" (151.625mhz) mobile units I use with the trail riders (
South Texas Trail Riders, Inc. Official Site) are transmitting at 25watts, and that is a lot of power, provided you have good coax, good antennas, and good 13.8vdc power.
N4hhe talked about using up to 45watts on the amateur bands. That's a lot.. I forget what the limit is on 2m.. I let my license expire years ago, and i haven't gotten around to getting it back.
Most people that think their VHF is not working well enough want more power. Most of the time it is not due to lack of power, it is due to poor antenna system. That goes for amateur 2m as well as commercial VHF.
Last edited by elibenson : 05-14-2009 at 07:11 AM.
Reason: forgot something