What can I expect from a 50 watt radio over and above an HT for base station?

[WRWE456]

Hello radiophiles.

I'm relatively new here, been into radio about a year now and GMRS about 4 months only.

So my situation is that I live on top of a 500' mountain/hill using a GMRS specific copper tube J pole from KB9VBR six feet above the roof on a two story house. Cable is 50' of LMR400 with type N connectors. Radio is a KG-935G Plus using the battery eliminator plugged into a Alinco DM-330MV power supply at 13.8 v. I also use a speaker mike. This is my base station setup at the moment. Now I must say this is working very well. I can reach out twenty miles or more so far. Most of my use is within ten miles. There is some hilly terrain in the area with forests but I am above most of it. Town is only about 5 miles away where most of my contacts are. I use this for simplex only so far.

My question is what improvements can I expect from more power? (Looking at the KG-1000G Plus) Of course there are areas where hills and wood are reducing coverage. Am wondering if more power would improve things much if at all. I mean line of sight is line of sight right?

I know the J pole is a unity gain antenna. I chose it for its excellent vertical angle. I can reach a mobile unit at the base of my hill behind a cliff that is at least 200 feet high a 1/4 mile from my house. HT to HT can not do that. (there is no way that is line of sight and yet it works) However I am guessing that a higher gain antenna such as a 5 db gain would reach farther but would it penetrate forests as well and reach down into low areas as well? I have the same radio's as mobile setups as well using 5 db gain mag mount whips and they work great.

Really liking the KG-935G Plus HT's. They are exceeding my expectations but can't help but wonder if much improvement could be had with more power or maybe a different antenna would be a smarter move?

Thanks for any insights.

 

 

 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WRWE456 said:

Hello radiophiles.

I'm relatively new here, been into radio about a year now and GMRS about 4 months only.

So my situation is that I live on top of a 500' mountain/hill using a GMRS specific copper tube J pole from KB9VBR six feet above the roof on a two story house. Cable is 50' of LMR400 with type N connectors. Radio is a KG-935G Plus using the battery eliminator plugged into a Alinco DM-330MV power supply at 13.8 v. I also use a speaker mike. This is my base station setup at the moment. Now I must say this is working very well. I can reach out twenty miles or more so far. Most of my use is within ten miles. There is some hilly terrain in the area with forests but I am above most of it. Town is only about 5 miles away where most of my contacts are. I use this for simplex only so far.

My question is what improvements can I expect from more power? (Looking at the KG-1000G Plus) Of course there are areas where hills and wood are reducing coverage. Am wondering if more power would improve things much if at all. I mean line of sight is line of sight right?

I know the J pole is a unity gain antenna. I chose it for its excellent vertical angle. I can reach a mobile unit at the base of my hill behind a cliff that is at least 200 feet high a 1/4 mile from my house. HT to HT can not do that. (there is no way that is line of sight and yet it works) However I am guessing that a higher gain antenna such as a 5 db gain would reach farther but would it penetrate forests as well and reach down into low areas as well? I have the same radio's as mobile setups as well using 5 db gain mag mount whips and they work great.

Really liking the KG-935G Plus HT's. They are exceeding my expectations but can't help but wonder if much improvement could be had with more power or maybe a different antenna would be a smarter move?

Thanks for any insights.

 

 

 

From you location you probably wouldn’t get much more range, but your transmissions will sound clearer with less background noise.. You might be able to get into the forests better and the receivers in the mobile radio might be better.  

On the other hand, a better antenna is always better.  Gain works in both directions.  Having more gain means your transmitted signals and received signals are both amplified.

[marcspaz]

The only thing I would add to what Steve mentioned is that 50 watts will help overcome antenna cable losses while transmitting. If you are barely receiving a signal from someone using 20w and you're feeding a coax that reduces your 4w-5w handheld signal down to 1.5w or less into the antenna... that other station isn't going to hear you. So, more power and a good antenna would be a good choice. 

[WRWE456]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply's guys. You both make good points. I tend to like efficiency over brute force. I have heard reports that HT's are capable of reaching over 100 miles from elevated positions with line of sight conditions so it would seem that antenna's and having line of sight are more important than having more power. I'm sure they both have their place and use. More power to get through forest's and overcome line loss etc.

That leads me to believe that I should have both. To have the option to be able to crank up the power for times when it will help.

I want to get another radio and have been trying to decide between and other KG-935G or a more powerful mobile/base unit. I now think it makes sense to have the option of more power. Thanks for helping me think this through.

 

[BoxCar]

Power is always nice, but in the ham world the mantra is to use the least amount of power required. The key piece is always the antenna with the higher the better as height is more important than gain. I will state the 3 things to weigh in deciding the next step is always antenna height, antenna gain and then transmitter power. The antenna points are always affected by SWR and losses in the feed line.

[WRWE456]

Hi BoxCar.

Thanks for the reply. I agree with all the points you make and am working toward optimizing all those things. For instance I just switched from RG-8U cable with UHF connectors to LMR400 with N connectors to improve feed line loss with UHF, even replaced the antenna with one with N connector, now it's down to a higher gain antenna and more power. And yes I do try and use the least amount of power needed but am limited by the HT's low power. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of having the option of stepping up transmit energy if trying to reach someone in a fringe area and with that in mind having a higher gain antenna should help with receiving them as well as I understand it so I think I'm on the right track.

Thanks again.