MM5AHO
Well-Known Member
And then there's the conditions prevailing in the troposphere.
I've spoken to CG somewhere in Wales once (Anglesea??) from near Gigha. That's got to be over 200km.
but under "flat" propagation conditions, I reckon a handheld is good for about 2-5 miles over open water to a shore station, half that to a yacht with masthead antenna, and perhaps under 1 mile to another sealevel handheld.
As others have said, its all about the antenna.
With a high gain yagi antenna, and exceptional conditions, I've also spoken to someone in Sweden using 0.05 watts (50 mW), but that's a different game altogether.
The world record for WiFi (also supposedly only for line of sight and in the mW range of power), is >350km.
No-one on a boat wants high gain antennas, as they are directional (bit like a torch beam). What's wanted is an omnidirectional antenna (like an anchor light). Some gain is possible by not squirting signal skyward, and straight down into the sea, but putting it all on the horizon 360degrees round you.
I've spoken to CG somewhere in Wales once (Anglesea??) from near Gigha. That's got to be over 200km.
but under "flat" propagation conditions, I reckon a handheld is good for about 2-5 miles over open water to a shore station, half that to a yacht with masthead antenna, and perhaps under 1 mile to another sealevel handheld.
As others have said, its all about the antenna.
With a high gain yagi antenna, and exceptional conditions, I've also spoken to someone in Sweden using 0.05 watts (50 mW), but that's a different game altogether.
The world record for WiFi (also supposedly only for line of sight and in the mW range of power), is >350km.
No-one on a boat wants high gain antennas, as they are directional (bit like a torch beam). What's wanted is an omnidirectional antenna (like an anchor light). Some gain is possible by not squirting signal skyward, and straight down into the sea, but putting it all on the horizon 360degrees round you.
