Range of Repeaters Using 20W Or So Mobil Radio

[Guest skideric]

Just wondering how far away Repeaters can be used with 20-30W Mobil GMRS Radio.

[OffRoaderX]

There are too many unknown variables for anyone to accurately answer your question - but it is safe to say that that using a 20-30W mobile radio you can hit a repeater anywhere from 1 to 90 miles away.. Maybe more.. maybe less.

I can hit a repeater 70 miles away from me with my 5W handheld and I have hit a repeater from 85 miles away on my 50W mobile.. 

But it really depends on the mobile radio, the repeater, and what is between the two.

[wayoverthere]

13 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

But it really depends on the mobile radio, the repeater, and what is between the two.

This pretty much sums it up. I can hit one 60ish miles away with a small antenna indoors and a 50 watt mobile, while with good lines of sight I've hit 70cm repeaters at 75ish miles on a 5 watt ht, and near 120 miles at 15 watts on the mobile, was clearer kicked up to 50 watts. Both of the 70cm were from up in the foothills, basically line of sight over the top of the valley I live in.

[Lscott]

On 4/5/2022 at 10:18 PM, Guest skideric said:

Just wondering how far away Repeaters can be used with 20-30W Mobil GMRS Radio.

As others pointed out it depends on what is between the two radios AND how high the antennas are. Assuming no obstructions you can estimate the range by taking the square root of the antenna height above ground in feet and multiply it by 1.4 for the range in miles. For example a repeater antenna at 150 feet would be about sqrt(150)*1.4 = 17.1 miles. Then you do the same for the mobile radio. Lets say it's a hand held at 5 feet. So we get sqrt(5)*1.4 = 3.1 miles. The total would be 17.1+3.1 = 20.2 miles.

There are a lot of other factors that could extend that range a bit, and most likely reduce it.