Long Range Radio Communications with 5 Watts
Q: How far do you think I will be able to communicate effectively with a 5 watts radio transceiver? I know that Motorola has handheld radios with 1 or 2 watts transmit power, but I am looking for the longest transmission range possible. Are there 5 watt radios that I can get hold of that have a longer range like I want?
A: How far you can get with 5 watts all depends on the band you are operating on, the antenna you are using on the radio, and the skill of the radio operator. There is a lot of information I need to convey to you in a short article, but I will do my best…
First off, if your radio is using vhf or uhf bands, these work mostly as line-of-sight. You can usually talk to the other guy as long as your antenna can “see” his antenna. That isn’t very far if you are both standing on the ground and are both using the built-in antenna on the walkie-talkie radio. However, if either of you can climb a ladder or get to the top of tall building, the signal from your antenna will get out further. Or if you have a base or a mobile radio that allows you to use an external antenna, then you will get more efficiency from the antenna and a longer range. Most base stations try to get their antennas up high as possible. So now you understand why.
Secondly, even with vhf and uhf handheld radios, you can get a range of dozens of miles all around if you have access to a radio repeater station. Business radios and those with FCC licences do this all the time. That is how emergency services and government agencies have radio systems that talk right across town. This includes police, fire and ambulance services. It also includes licensed amateur radio operators, who use vhf and uhf repeaters that their local clubs install on hills or high spots all around their local towns and cities. GMRS radios use UHF and can use GMRS repeaters if there are any nearby; but you need to pay the FCC for a radio licence to use gmrs, even if you have a combined FRS/GMRS radio. Only the FRS channels are okay for use without a license.
CB radios that use the 27 MHz band can get out further than FRS radios most of the time, especially if you have a mobile CB radio with a decent antenna on your car or up high on your home. They cannot use repeaters, but sometimes, when the atmospherics are just right, you can talk long distances on “radio skip”. (This is when your shortwave signal goes up into the sky and bounces back down to earth a long distance away.) Working long distance (DX) on your radio can be great fun when the band is open. But it is illegal in the US to use CB to talk to radio operators in foreign countries. Talking DX to CBers anywhere in the US is perfectly legal, even if you chat right across several states. But you really need a CB radio with SSB (single sideband) to have much hope of doing this. The good news is that radio propagation conditions are looking up even as I write this answer in September 2011. After being really poor for more than a decade, we are coming into much better propagation conditions than we have seen in too many long years.
As for using the other HF bands (or short wave bands), you need to get an amateur radio license to play with them, and you need to learn how to do things properly by joining your local amateur radio club. You can start by contacting the ARRL (in the USA) or the equivalent radio society in your own country. These licensed radio operators will be happy to welcome you into the fraternity and help you get started. But please do not confuse Ham Radio (that is trained and licensed Amateur Radio Operators) with CB Radio. They are totally different.
CBers are not required to have a license, therefore they don’t have to study and learn how to use two-way radios properly. Many CBers misbehave over the air with obscenities and foul language, and deliberately hog channels and talk over other people who are trying to get a message across. They have little skill in assembling a radio station and erecting antennas so they don’t cause interference to others. But the real licensed radio Hams have to learn how to do things right and act responsibly. They even learn about radio propagation on the HF bands and how to make full use of them.
Many licensed Hams have enough skill to be able to work the world with less than 5 watts on their radios. It is known as working QRP (low power). These highly-skilled radio operators usually use efficient HF antennas, which may be 33 of 70 feet long (10 or 20 meters) and they often use morse code or digital modes instead of voice to exchange contact information with other radio operators. This is because digital or morse code (CW) will almost always get through much better in marginal conditions than using the spoken voice, even using single sideband.
Of course, not all CBers misbehave on air. A lot of CB operators are upstanding people, and many of these get interested enough in two-way radio as a hobby to become licensed Amateur Radio operators themselves. That’s how I got started, back in the late 1970s. Its a lot easier these days, too.
73 de David, vk2dmh
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It is a bit hard to help you when you haven’t specified what band you’re on, which license type (or no-license type) and whether you are talking 27 MHz HF CB radio, VHF or UHF like the little no-license FRS radios.
I am going to assume you are talking about a handheld walkie talkie, since a mobile or a base station will usually be 5 watts or more. In some services which do require paid licenses, a base station can be 25 watts, 50 watts or greater.
Anyhow, let me tell you now it will take you a very big increase of your two way radio’s output power to boost your radio’s effective range by any worthwhile amount.
Doubling your transmit power does not double your range. If my memory serves me right, you would have to quadruple your radio’s transmit power if you expect to double the distance it can send.
Quadruple means to multiply something by four times! That is a pretty tall order.
So yes, a 5 watt radio will certainly give you longer range compared with a 1 watt radio. But you can almost always get the same – or even better – increase in radio range by using an efficient external antenna that is mounted tens of feet higher than you and your handheld radio (and / or you) would normally stand.
Most handheld ‘rubber ducky’ type antennas are made small to be convenient to handle and walk around with. But they are very inefficient. Even with an efficient aerial, a small percentage of your transmit power is lost as heat. But with a poor aerial you lose a big percentage as heat. Your transmit power is lost and never ‘gets out’ there as a decent radio signal.
So for the greatest possible signal out in the air, you need the highest power the government allows for your classification of radio. (FRS radio is fixed at 1/2 a watt, that’s less power than many MURS radios. But the licensing terms from the FCC are quite different between those two services. FRS radios are not allowed to have external antennas, but MURS radios can.)
You need the most effective antenna you can get, and for maximum distance you will want it set up someplace high. Either you can stand on the roof of a building or up a high structure, which is inconvenient or even dangerous, or you can have a two-way radio that is connected by a coax cable to your well-situated antenna. This is one of the reasons why a lot of licensed amateur radio operators have ‘field days’ where they set up their 2 way radios with big, effective, full-sized antennas outdoors.
Some hams prefer to go and hike up a mountain for the day to try and reach as many different contacts as they can. These guys may string up wire antennas over trees or hang them from long fishing poles! And they write down the details of every radio contact in their radio log book so they can submit it for various amateur radio contests or awards.
There are some amateur radio operators, who prefer to use less than 5 watts of power. (In ham-radio speak, that is known as QRP or low-powered operation.) Those guys do it because it is difficult, so achieving success is proof of their hard work and skill. Many of them are are licensed to use more than 1000 watts of power on their HF radios (shortwave bands) but they use QRP power instead, often using morse code signals (CW mode) or digital mode transmissions such as PSK-31 which can often go hundreds or even thousands of miles using less than 5 watts of power.