XTL/XTS5000 Approximately range of an XTS 5000

[dmason04]

Hello,
I did some looking and can’t seem to get an answer to my question so i wanted to ask here. What is the approximate distance range of the XTS 5000 with the 5 inch whip antenna? WITHOUT hitting a repeater? If you know, I’d like to figure out line of sight and what the range would be in a mountain range similar to where I live.

David

 

[K2NEC]

It depends on the band and the terrain but anywhere between 3/4 mile and 3 miles I'd say is a good guess.

 

[ElroyJetson]

It'll be the same as any other portable radio with a comparable antenna, comparable power output, and comparable receiver.

My personal best verified simplex path with portable radios: Two UHF MT1000s, clear line of sight over calm water, from one base of the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys to the other base. So that's 7.2 miles over water at a height of about 10 feet above sea level. Communication quality between them was clear but not full quieting. So that was pushing the limit.

VHF might have reached 10 percent farther.

It comes down to an unrestricted line of sight. From mountaintop to mountaintop, you might get tens of miles. Maybe 50? Even a hundred?

It's COMPLETELY possible to make contact with astronaut amateur radio operators in the ISS when they are active, using a portable radio, if you are right down their path. And that's 254 miles. But you'll want to connect a beam antenna to it in order to get any kind of GOOD signal for any length of time. A simple 3 element beam antenna can be constructed using a scrap tape measure and following the instructions.

According to an online calculator I found, your line of sight range should be about 100 miles if your unobstructed elevation is about 6600 feet above terrain.

 

[ElevatorsAndRadios]

Using two XTS5000s, each with the 5 inch UHF whip, my friend and I talked between the coast of San Diego, CA and mile-marker 27.20 on the Angeles Crest Highway (in the mountains above La Canada, CA). The distance between us was 97 miles. We used analog and P25.

 

[mmckenna]

Hello,
I did some looking and can’t seem to get an answer to my question so i wanted to ask here. What is the approximate distance range of the XTS 5000 with the 5 inch whip antenna? WITHOUT hitting a repeater? If you know, I’d like to figure out line of sight and what the range would be in a mountain range similar to where I live.

David

There's way too many variables to give you any sort of accurate estimate. The topographical features on their own would be a challenge to figure out.

But as you can see above, clear line of site with ZERO topographical shielding/curvature of the earth/etc. is pretty much unlimited.
Get some dirt between you and the other radio, and you might be lucky to get 1/4 mile.
Your experience will be somewhere between that "Unlimited" and 1/4 mile. I'll stake my reputation on that.

The only way to prove this out is to get two radios and give it a try.

 

[merlin]

My brother at Redondo beach Ca. King harbor with an M-RK, I was on Catalina Island (airport) with XTS3000
Both with like 4 1/2 inch antenna and full quieting both ends.
The distance is about 26 miles over water but the PV peninsula was at the edge of line of sight.
My elevation was about 1600 foot. Not too bad I thought for 800 Mhz.
Consider mountains, if you are above the big tree line those trees absorb a LOT of RF in the upper frequencies.
Hilltop to hilltop, line of sight, 2-3 miles is what I would expect. 45 Mhz, same power 10-12 miles.
VHF or UHF, just less than that. That is why you see forestry division using 45 and 150 Mhz.

 

[ElroyJetson]

It's not unusual for trunked portables which are used in elevated locations to be able to access the system from such a distance that they can't communicate because of the timing problem that arises when you are roughly 75 miles or so from the trunking site the radio is set to. The propagation time for a 150 mile round trip which is about 0.8 milliseconds. That starts to cause problems with timing on 4800 baud rate systems.

The greater the distance, the worse the problem gets, of course.

Any sheriff's aviation unit will have a clear understanding of the timing limited range of their trunked system if they go out of their area and provide assistance to another agency. Signal strength may be more than adequate, but data timing will place a limit on their useful communications range with the system.

I have received clear audio signals from trunked 800 MHz systems with a line of sight range of about 70 miles or so, under exceptional atmospheric conditions. Using a portable radio as the receiver.

 

[KN4EHX]

No clue what region you are in or what band your 5000 is, but I can tell you my experiences for East Tennessee.

VHF and UHF portables at 5 or 4 watts around 3 miles is definitely a great success, but more regularly 1.5 miles is what I’d call the comfort zone.

On top of Roan Mountain (I think 2nd or 3rd highest east of the Rockies) I made it into Johnson City and held a conversation without much fuss. I’ve regularly been able to talk to a guy who uses a Kenwood 50 watt VHF radio on about a 30 foot tower with me standing outside on a hand held at about 20 miles.

7/800 MHz is definitely not so hot in the mountains.

Using a handheld inside a car with my partner across town also using a handheld from inside a car while trying to be sneaky on UHF is a total dud. Mini metro area. We might get about 1/2 mile at best. I was pretty shocked by the terrible reception.

Moral of the story: handhelds do not replace mobile radios. Its a tool on the belt, but if you intend to simplex far away, you ideally will have a 5/8 wave antenna and some oomph on transmit. Low band VHF works for the military and several agencies such as California and Virginia state police. In my experience VHF high band with 50 to 110 watts I can get about 20 to 30 miles provided there isn’t too much dirt and rocks between operators. Repeaters are your friends.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Mobile is a totally different game. Back when I was running a VHF Syntor X 110 watt radio with 3dB gain antenna, I could communicate simplex with any other reasonable mobile radio setup over 20 miles and more. And it'd bring up repeaters (at full quieting) at ranges over 75 miles.

It was actually tuned for about 150 watts clean output. And it had the receiver preamp option. Heck of a nice radio.

 

[KN4EHX]

Mobile is a totally different game. Back when I was running a VHF Syntor X 110 watt radio with 3dB gain antenna, I could communicate simplex with any other reasonable mobile radio setup over 20 miles and more. And it'd bring up repeaters (at full quieting) at ranges over 75 miles.

It was actually tuned for about 150 watts clean output. And it had the receiver preamp option. Heck of a nice radio.

Eventually 7/800 won’t be so cool anymore and eventually low band will become fashionable again. I jokingly recommend we should use low band again after our repeaters decided it would be a good ideal to take a dirt nap all at once - at the absolute worst possible time. A 1990’s solution to a $7,000,000 problem. Gotta have that mission critical, super fly, Phase II trunked stuff though.