Hi Holly.

That depends upon many things--what you are using for an antenna, how high 
it is, how high the repeater antenna is, and what the terrain is like in 
your area.  When I was first licensed, I had an Icom IC2AT that I could get 
into Rochester repeaters that were some 37 miles away, but that was because 
I lived on top of a large hill that was line of site with the city of 
Rochester.  The 1.5 watts was more than sufficient.  On the other hand, my 
5 watt HT that I have now only hits repeaters that are about 10 to 15 miles 
away, but that is because I now live in the city, and terrain and large 
buildings are against me.

There are two approaches you can use to reach distant repeaters if all that 
you have is an HT.  One approach is to add a small amplifier to get the 
power up into the 25 to 30 watt range.  You can do a lot with this power 
level.  Generally, unless you have really unfavorable conditions, 50 watts 
is overkill.

The other approach is to use an antenna with more gain.  I don't know your 
situation, so I don't know if outside antennas are a problem.  Many of the 
gain outside antennas like the Comet or Diamon antennas will do a very good 
job over some good distances with very modest power levels.  Directional 
antennas (beams) will do substantially better.  If you have the luxury of 
putting up good outside antennas, that is the better investment because it 
will help on both the transmit and receive sides of the communication.

With the Comet omnidirectional antenna mentioned above, my 5 watt HT will 
access repeaters that are 45 miles away from my house without any 
difficulty, and I can reach some machines that are 65 miles away at 25 
watts with a mobile radio.  The antenna makes a really big 
difference--often a bigger difference than pumping up the power.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 03:40 PM 9/25/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>The closest repeater to here is about 25 minutes away.  Does anyone know
>if an ht will go that far?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Holly

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753