On average distance

[burchill]

So a strait shot clear no hills trees etc how far will a gre per 500 receive 5, 10, 15, 20 etc.... miles?

 

[OCO]

Pretty sure that the answers are the same as for the GRE800 that you asked about.

 

[n5ims]

Yes and No. This answer is as general as your question is. The number of miles any receiver will pick up depends on many factors. These factors can be as simple as how tall the transmitting antenna is plus how tall the receiving antenna is (including factors like the design of each of those antennas, the length and effeciency of their feed lines, etc.) to things like weather conditions, what types of terrain is between the two locations (water, sand, farm land, forrests, etc.).

The type of system used by the desired site may also affect the distance. Often a simulcast system is designed to cover a specific area and once you get outside of that area you may get the system perfect at one location and a few hundred feet away get nothing.

The distance your PSR-500 will receive is easily affected by what antenna you're using on it and what's around it. The same radio/antenna combination may not get a system 10 miles away sitting out by the pool in the back yard, but be able to pick up a system 50 miles away just fine from your second story balcony.

Frequency is also a factor. Low-band VHF (30 - 50 MHz or so) is designed for long range coverage while 800 MHz is more designed for shorter range communications.

The PSR-500 has a pretty hot receiver and picks up weak signals quite well so it's a good choice for long-distance scanning. The exact distance it'll cover is up to you and your exact setup as well as the design of the system you're trying to pick up.

 

[Ed_Seedhouse]

So a strait shot clear no hills trees etc how far will a gre per 500 receive 5, 10, 15, 20 etc.... miles?

There is no decent answer to an ill framed question, and the question you have asked is ill framed. There are a whole bunch of factors that affect this. If we put a million watt beam antenna on the near side of moon and focus it on your town, and it is in your scanner's frequency range and uses a type of modulation your scanner can decipher then your scanner will certainly receive it. If we put the same transmitter on the far side of the moon it won't. Geography, power, type of antenna, location, receiver sensitivity, transmitter output power, the current state of the atmosphere including the weather will, all affect this (and I've probably omitted some other perfectly obvious factor). There are no "straight" shots anyway except over short distances because the earth itself is curved, and so forms it's own "mountain".

You want a simple answer to a question to a matter that is complex. As someone once said, "To every complex question there is an answer that is simple, elegant, persuasive, and wrong".

 

[mulveyr]

There is no decent answer to an ill framed question, and the question you have asked is ill framed. There are a whole bunch of factors that affect this. If we put a million watt beam antenna on the near side of moon and focus it on your town, and it is in your scanner's frequency range and uses a type of modulation your scanner can decipher then your scanner will certainly receive it. If we put the same transmitter on the far side of the moon it won't. Geography, power, type of antenna, location, receiver sensitivity, transmitter output power, the current state of the atmosphere including the weather will, all affect this (and I've probably omitted some other perfectly obvious factor). There are no "straight" shots anyway except over short distances because the earth itself is curved, and so forms it's own "mountain".

You want a simple answer to a question to a matter that is complex. As someone once said, "To every complex question there is an answer that is simple, elegant, persuasive, and wrong".

I disagree. Clearly, the answer is 20 gigawatts.