How To Tell How Far This Goes..

[btritch]

Can anyone tell me how to tell how far location 3 signal will go, by looking at this link? I'm not sure how to check...Location 3 FB2 is the one I'm talking about..How do you tell how far the signal from it goes, Can you?
can anyone help with this?

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=1190940 here's the link, Sorry folks, My bad..

 

[KC0QNB]

Wheres the link?

 

[btritch]

Oh, OOPS! MY Bad, I'll Edit it in right now..

EDIT: It's there now..

 

[KC0QNB]

30 miles or so reliably and over flat ground, in our county we have three vhf repeaters the county is about 41 miles by 23 miles and there are still places where there is no signal so based on that, you can make a educated guess.

 

[btritch]

30 miles or so reliably and over flat ground, in our county we have three vhf repeaters the county is about 41 miles by 23 miles and there are still places where there is no signal so based on that, you can make a educated guess.

That's the thing, It's OUR CITY FD and that repeater's not even IN the county...

But the city it's located in it should cover the entire city well enough where if you were in doors somewhere the scanner would still pick it up, Right?

 

[KC0QNB]

No way to tell but it depends on the receiver and antenna.

 

[fineshot1]

No way to tell but it depends on the receiver and antenna.

and many other variables, so there is no way to tell from looking at the data on that link

 

[btritch]

Ok, I've contacted the owner that they're renting the tower space from and inquired about it..I'll let you know what they tell me prolly tomarra, Otherwise, I guess the only other way to find out is ta wait till somethin' happens and record here so I'll know when that time is and hope I'm down that way.. I THINK it will cover the whole city though because sometimes when the skip level is up or when the air waves are quiet early in the mornin'/late at night after they get through toning it out, I can hear it repeat from here pretty clear, It's a little fuzzy but not bad..That is what led me to wonderin' how far it could be heard.. cause I'm a good 20 miles away from that tower, at least...Guess we'll just have ta wait and see..whether they tell me or I have ta test it and find out..one way or anotha, It's just gonna be patience I guess... Thanks for da help all!

 

[DickH]

That's the thing, It's OUR CITY FD and that repeater's not even IN the county...

But the city it's located in it should cover the entire city well enough where if you were in doors somewhere the scanner would still pick it up, Right?

That's like asking, How high is UP?

 

[n4yek]

That's the thing, It's OUR CITY FD and that repeater's not even IN the county...

But the city it's located in it should cover the entire city well enough where if you were in doors somewhere the scanner would still pick it up, Right?

Another thing to consider, scanners are made for wide frequency ranges and it is hard to make scanners that are as sensitive and as good as dedicated radios for a particular frequency range.
Your Fire department uses radios made for VHF and no more. They can make those receivers extremely good for the freqs they use since they aren't used anyplace else. So that being the case, they can receive a weaker signal and hear it, but your scanner might not and if you hear as reception with lots of static, it might be pretty clear to them.
It all boils down to the radios.

 

[commstar]

Lots of variables in this question, HAAT of the site, antenna,antenna downtilt, wattage, geography (a biggie) between you and the site...... not sure I understood your question completely.

If you are asking will you be able to strictly monitor that channel 20+ miles away then disregard the following.

*If you are considering using those channels - they are licensed for a 32.0 km (just under 20 miles) radius around centerpoint mobile input so using that repeater outside that radius (you say over 20 miles) might pose some legal/civil concerns for your agency 'if something happened' due to poor radio coverage. At minimum, a license modification might be in order.

 

[RKG]

"How far it will go" is best interpreted as a question about free space propigation loss. As a practical matter, a free space propigation calc would show a FSP loss of about -130 dB at 100 miles, which given a transmitted signal of 50 dBm would result in a received signal in the range of -80 dBm, which should be receivable on virtually any receiver.

But that doesn't mean you can service an area of 100 miles radius in real life. Rather, in real life you're asking what the usable service range for a transmitted signal of 50 dBm from an antenna with an HAAT of 88.7 m (291 ft) over reasonably flat terrain. For a reliable answer for any particular location, you need to get your hands on a propigation survey software package (very expensive) and someone who knows how to run it (ditto), but I'd guess that as a general matter your signal should be reliably heard by a well-installed mobile or outdoors portable within about 20 miles.

That, however, is for the output. The workable range for input signals is an entirely different animal, and you have to know a lot more about local terrain, system parameters, and other things.

 

[n5ims]

Some possibilities here. Could this be a site used for mutual assistance or EMS communications with a hospital?

 

[btritch]

Well to clear some things up...No it's not for Transmitt, Recieve only as I am not licensed to use it anyway..It is strictly for Fire Department Use only, Nothing else, I've been talking to the fire chief here and he's referred me to the site manager of whom I've not heard back yet but I DO KNOW that it is in case some of the guys here are around that other city since it's like a municipal city with more things than ours offers and a call comes through, They'll hear it, However, it is a "pager tone only" frequency..I'm not even sure it will work for a scanner, I would assume it would tone out there just like it would here....