Hi.

You'll probably be spotty with an HT at best with a portable antenna, but 
with an outside antenna, you stand a decent chance of getting into the 
repeater.  The next best thing would probably be something like a J-pole 
antenna in the attic,  or a 5/8 wave with a decent groundplane under it.

With a 25 watt mobile, you could probably make the trip on a 1/4 wave 
groundplane antenna.

Actually my first radio was a 10 watt Kenwood, and the antenna was a 
vertical dipole cut for 2 meters hanging in the center of an upstairs 
bedroom.  It worked surprisingly well at distances of up to 40 miles.  But 
then, I had favorable terrain on my side to as I was sitting on top of a 
hill with almost 1200 ft. above sea level -- about 600 feet higher than the 
city of Rochester which was 37 miles away.  I could also get into Buffalo 
with a little more difficulty.  It was 31 miles away.  That was when I 
still lived out in southern Genesee County, where the cows outnumbered the 
people!

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 12:14 PM 9/27/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>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

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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