LeoG

Had to ask.

That website mentioned linked repeaters. Maybe you are getting a signal from one of those and not the direct line from the actual site.

As much as they say UHF doesn't reflect well, in some cases it does. I have an area that has a big building I think the signal reflects off of because the signal is in the shadow of a hill and I shouldn't get it. But right in front of that building I can contact my repeater with an HT and if I move off to either side of the building I can't. On top of it I'm shadowed by a tall brick building that should degrade the signal even more. Like you said, radio can be magic.

That site you linked me to had GPS coordinates on it, made it pretty easy.

50% reliability brings it to 0.20µV

Oh that'll kill it....

If you want to give me coordinates, antenna heights and radio power I'll throw it in there to see what it spits out. Also how you think you are receiving each other R9 R7 R5 etc so I can play around to see if I can get that approx signal strength.

Bringing the reliability down to 96% the signal gets to 0.51µV which is plenty of signal. I accidentally did 462MHz and it was 0.00µV

20 watts brings the signal down to 0.07µV from 0.11µV Don't know what the sensitivity of those radios are but this program seems to say you can't communicate either.... And yet.

I put your friend as a 50w transmitter and 7 meters of 7.2dbi gain antenna and you as the receiver with and HT

Can you tell me what the green location Longitude is please? I wanted to plot it. And wattage of your transmitters would help too.

Yep, just noticed it's 300' of mountains. Maybe try it in Radio Mobile, they have a frequency input that might show you it can reach.

I also use the Radio Mobile Online calculator. It's much more complex but gives more information. You do have to figure out how to set it up. Keep the required reliability up toward the high end or it'll tell you everything will work. I keep mine at 99.85% and it's reasonably accurate. It doesn't account for trees which can be a major blockage of UHF so you have to think about that yourself. You have to sign up for an account to use it. https://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline_s.asp

You have your antennas set to 1 meter. Are you both HTs?

Of course I do. But I'm not tearing my system up until it gets warmer out. I might have the opportunity to heat up the lightning arrester and fittings to see if the SWR moves when I thaw the water in that connection if it even exists there. If nothing happens it's at the antenna. I'm tending to think that is going to be the problem area because the antenna fitting was wrapped on the ground and it has that aluminum shroud over it for protection. It seems like it would be the hardest to be infiltrated. While the lightning arrester is down stream and the water would flow down the cable. I have my drip loop and did what I could so the arrestor wasn't at the bottom of the run. But my bet is the issue is there if it's not a defect in my antenna.

So weird. 21ºF seems to be the magic number, or so I assume. That's when it happened when I was monitoring it. And last night I was monitoring it because the temps were suppose to fall also. But by the time I went to bed at 1am the temps had only gotten to 24º and the SWR remained at 2.06. The coax had more than enough time to freeze since it got below freezing about 6pm and was dropping about 1º per hour. It hit 21º about 5am. I wasn't up to see that but when I did check about 8am (20º) the SWR was at 1.16. The lightning arrester is near the entry point of the house so maybe the warming effect of the coax in the house is slowing the freezing down. The attic isn't heated so it's not like the cable is 65º on the other side of the wall. And there's no guarantee the issue is at the lightning arrester and not the antenna. Just more to the mystery.

Try this program to see if you have a chance of communication between the two stations. It doesn't account for curvature of the Earth so at 13 miles there is a little of that involved. Put in both points and antenna heights and see if you have line of site. It's not 100% needed and if a small portion of a hill impedes the signal it'll still get through. But if you have a large hill or hills in the way it's going to be DOA. Only chance you may have is a local repeater that is high enough for LOS to both stations. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

I have no adapters in my house system other than the ones on the SWR meter 239>N. I do have a PL239 to Male N 90º on my repeater system to allow the coax to get to the back of the repeater. I'm over 90% confident there is water in a fitting or coax then when it freezes negates the problem of the water. It's 40ºF right now but I'm at work so I can't test it. It's not going below freezing tonight I believe so the SWR is likely to be at 2.09 again when I get home. Contacted the wife and it sounded better than I thought it would being as warm as it is. So maybe I'll be proved wrong. I'm doubting it though.

On some of his videos, when he does imply, he says the govt won't do anything about small infractions.

I can reach those fittings without the need to remove the antenna or a bucket truck.

Well I came up with a test that I might be able to do. It won't be at the antenna, but it'll be at the lightning arrester. I was thinking about taking a hair dryer or heat gun and heat up the fittings to thaw them. If the SWR goes up I know the fittings or lightning arrester is the culprit. If nothing happens it's got to be the antenna or it's fitting..

Well temps been rising and got to 23º and the SWR is still 1.19, so it's not strictly temperature related. Sounds like the freezing just took time to happen.

Well, my radio at the house is on 24/7 so if I'm in range my wife can hear. But it is through local repeater, so you have to depend on them. I need to get a quadruple receive radio so I can monitor all 4 repeaters in my area LOL.

As soon as he said mountainous region the answer was probably not. Running with your buddies it would probably work. As an emergency device in a rural area not so much.