Hi Holly,
    I have worked a 2 meter repeater that was 20 miles away with a hand held 
running 5 watts and a 5 eighth wave antenna. I took the same radio and 
connected it to a ringo ranger 2 at 68 feet and was able to work repeaters 
up to 80 miles away. I then bought an amplifier and at 30 watts If I could 
hear it I could probably work it. I was told that a yagi would help my 
signal even more. So, I bought a ten element one. At this point I really 
didn't get much of an improvement over the ringo ranger 2 but it made 
everyone else happy. One thing to think about with people giving you signal 
reports. When I lived in Texas some people about 80 miles away said that 
they couldn't hear my 30 watt signal very well. So, I turned on a bigger 
amplifier and they told me that my signal hadn't improved. Well, I had just 
gone from 30 to over 150 watts so I knew that my signal was about knocking 
them out of their seats.
    Now you have pretty much all I know about Two meters and signal 
strength.
                    God bless,
                    Mark
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Holly Alonzo" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:14 AM
Subject: another question


> Ok I've figured this much out.  From here to the repeater it is all flat
> land, like fields for farming and stuff.  It's a small town so not many
> high buildings and such.  I looked on map quest and from here to there
> is 18.5 miles, but that is taking the roads.  so if you went like the
> crow flies I'm not sure how much it would be.  But does anyone think I
> could hit this?  I'm trying to get one of the guys from the club to come
> out and see what he can hit.
>
> Thanks,
> Holly
>
>