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What's The Longest FRS/GMRS Range Claim These Days?

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prcguy

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I once did a 175mi path from a mountain top to my GMRS repeater from a 4w handheld. I was full quieting into the repeater so if there was another hand held at the repeater site it would have been useable.
prcguy
 

rapidcharger

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That's funny that those Unidens come with carabiners because you're going to need to go climbing up to the top of mt kilimanjaro in order to get that wildly exaggerated claim of 50 miles. But it should also come with a harness and some rope. You're going to need that too.
 

DPD1

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I guess I lost track of the bubble pack bragging at 25-30 miles. Now I see Uniden has got a 50 mile model: Incredible.

Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous. And people believe it too. I mean, in all fairness... The majority of the people who buy them have no real working knowledge of radio stuff. So if something says that, why wouldn't you believe it? But I've gotten many emails over the years, where people are dismayed to find that the radios they bought, only go a couple blocks.
 

mikepdx

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These stories are from the early 2000's.
Orig source was ARRL, I believe:

Youngsters hailed in radio rescue:
Two young Oregon brothers are being
credited with quick thinking after they intercepted a plea for help
transmitted via a Family Radio Service UHF transceiver by some injured
mountaineers more than 80 miles away. Fletcher and Parker Wold, ages 7
and 5 respectively, of McMinnville, heard the call for help put out by
climbers Iain Morris, 23, and Jim Clark, 38. Morris and Clark had been
caught in a rock slide on Mount Hood June 20, and Morris was seriously
injured. The brothers immediately alerted their dad, Mike Wold, who
contacted authorities, triggering a full-scale mountain rescue. Mike
Wold says he gave the boys the hand-held transceivers to use when
playing in the woods, so he could keep in touch with them.

Another long-distance FRS rescue:
An 11-year-old Marysville, Washington, girl helped rescue a stranded and injured hiker 100 miles away on September 24 when she picked up his call for help on her Family Radio Service UHF H-T. Mikayala Whitley was playing Sunday with the little transceiver outside her home in north of Seattle when she heard the call for help and responded. She was able to keep in contact with injured hiker Michael Wyant, 49, throughout the afternoon. The girl's parents called authorities, who launched a rescue with the youngster acting as a communication relay between the hiker and rescuers. Wyant was picked up by a helicopter later that afternoon, treated at a hospital and released. He also called to thank his radio rescuer. The FRS units--which operate in the 462-MHz range--have a typical range of a couple of miles. In June, two young Oregon brothers were credited with quick thinking after they intercepted a plea for help transmitted via an FRS UHF transceiver by
some injured mountaineers more than 80 miles away. Those hikers also were rescued as a result.

IT HAPPENS!
 
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KF5YDR

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I once did a 175mi path from a mountain top to my GMRS repeater from a 4w handheld. I was full quieting into the repeater so if there was another hand held at the repeater site it would have been useable.
prcguy
That's...not even close to accurate. The repeater has a tuned antenna, probably with significant gain, a more sensitive receiver, and MUCH better selectivity. Not to mention a proper ground and EMI shielding.

That's like saying if you can put down a 13-second quarter on Goodyear GT's in a Mustang you can do it on Goodyear GT's in a Fiesta.
 

mirayge

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Decatur, IL but my heart is from Bugtussle
Since all licence by rule services are intended to be short range, maybe the manufacturers should be limited to claiming the distance to horizon. What did I read before? I think it was something like for two six foot individuals using HTs the horizon is three miles or five kilometers. That assumes flat terrain and no trees or buildings.
 

Project25_MASTR

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Texas
These stories are from the early 2000's.
Orig source was ARRL, I believe:

Youngsters hailed in radio rescue:
Two young Oregon brothers are being
credited with quick thinking after they intercepted a plea for help
transmitted via a Family Radio Service UHF transceiver by some injured
mountaineers more than 80 miles away. Fletcher and Parker Wold, ages 7
and 5 respectively, of McMinnville, heard the call for help put out by
climbers Iain Morris, 23, and Jim Clark, 38. Morris and Clark had been
caught in a rock slide on Mount Hood June 20, and Morris was seriously
injured. The brothers immediately alerted their dad, Mike Wold, who
contacted authorities, triggering a full-scale mountain rescue. Mike
Wold says he gave the boys the hand-held transceivers to use when
playing in the woods, so he could keep in touch with them.

Another long-distance FRS rescue:
An 11-year-old Marysville, Washington, girl helped rescue a stranded and injured hiker 100 miles away on September 24 when she picked up his call for help on her Family Radio Service UHF H-T. Mikayala Whitley was playing Sunday with the little transceiver outside her home in north of Seattle when she heard the call for help and responded. She was able to keep in contact with injured hiker Michael Wyant, 49, throughout the afternoon. The girl's parents called authorities, who launched a rescue with the youngster acting as a communication relay between the hiker and rescuers. Wyant was picked up by a helicopter later that afternoon, treated at a hospital and released. He also called to thank his radio rescuer. The FRS units--which operate in the 462-MHz range--have a typical range of a couple of miles. In June, two young Oregon brothers were credited with quick thinking after they intercepted a plea for help transmitted via an FRS UHF transceiver by
some injured mountaineers more than 80 miles away. Those hikers also were rescued as a result.

IT HAPPENS!

The FRS only channels are in the the 467 MHz side…462 is the stuff shared with GMRS. No where does it say that they were able to communicate both ways…for all we know those stranded could've been using 4W GMRS hand helds. With the receivers that they are claiming it is quite possible to be able to have one way comms.
 

Jimru

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The FRS only channels are in the the 467 MHz side…462 is the stuff shared with GMRS. No where does it say that they were able to communicate both ways…for all we know those stranded could've been using 4W GMRS hand helds. With the receivers that they are claiming it is quite possible to be able to have one way comms.

Well, it does say, in the case of the young girl, that she was able to "keep in contact" with the injured party, which I interpret to mean a two-way conversation. But, it's not completely clear in either case.

Maybe in each case there was tropospheric ducting occurring? That is the only thing I can think of that would enable such a weak UHF signal to travel such long distances!
 

nd5y

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Maybe in each case there was tropospheric ducting occurring? That is the only thing I can think of that would enable such a weak UHF signal to travel such long distances!
Think again. You can easily have a direct line of sight path of over 100 miles when one or both stations are on mountains.
 
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SCPD

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Virginia
Misprint

Well, it does say, in the case of the young girl, that she was able to "keep in contact" with the injured party, which I interpret to mean a two-way conversation. But, it's not completely clear in either case.

Maybe in each case there was tropospheric ducting occurring? That is the only thing I can think of that would enable such a weak UHF signal to travel such long distances!


I call a misprint!It had to say 10 miles.I see misprints all the time and this is one.
 

Jimru

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Think again. You can easily have a direct line of sight path of over 100 miles when one or both stations are on mountains.

True! I mean, hams communicate with the International Space Station using HTs all the time (although they are usually using a gain antenna, which FRS radios don't have).

Also, in these particular cases, they said these kids were, for instance, in their back yards, right? It is possible they were line-of-sight with the hikers, if the hikers were in the mountains and the kids were in a valley.
 
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