What is the longest range repeater in your area?

[WashingtonMatt]

Just idle curiosity... What is the longest range repeater in your area?

As a relatively new GMRS user primarily for four wheeling use, I've been checking the repeater map in the places I'm likely to travel and I've come to realize that I'm extremely lucky to have a couple really nice repeaters in my area, and around the state. In particular the Tiger Mountain Oly-Comm3 is a monster and lists 90 mile range. It covers all the major metro areas of Western Washington and well beyond. I can hit it from my house 55 miles away on HT. Most surprisingly, it's quiet most of the time, but always has folks listening.

I do understand our unique geography is a major contributor to the great coverage. It's just really cool that I can drive 3 hours down the interstate and still talk to the mothership.

[marcspaz]

There are 2 repeaters around here that have solid, uninterrupted coverage for a 30 miles radius and the scattered covered (50% to 70% covered) for a 90 mile radius.

 

Keep in mind that repeaters like this have the coverage they do because they are going to be up on a hill or mountain with an elevation advantage of over 1,000 feet compared to the coverage area.  When an antenna is only 30 to 50 feet off the ground in a relatively flat area, you are only going to get about 5 to 8 miles.  Moving up to 300 feet might bump it to 25 or 30 miles, depending on the rest of the terrain. 

[OffRoaderX]

Our Delta repeater in Southern California easily gets farz of 60+ miles, with the record so far being 120 miles from its location near Mt. Baldy California to Chiriaco Summit east of Palm Springs.

[WRWE456]

Hey fellow WA resident here. I live in the San Juan Islands and can hear the Tiger Mt repeater loud and clear. I listen regularly to a group of folks that chat on their commute to work every morning from all over the Puget Sound area. Kind of entertaining at times. Just looking at the repeater map that has got to be maybe 130 miles from my location. I'm about 40 miles outside the green circle. I am up on top of a 500 foot hill so probably is line of sight for me. I don't use repeaters at this time as I just use GMRS to talk to local friends and family. But nice to know how great the range can really be.

[WashingtonMatt]

4 hours ago, WRWE456 said:

Hey fellow WA resident here. I live in the San Juan Islands and can hear the Tiger Mt repeater loud and clear. I listen regularly to a group of folks that chat on their commute to work every morning from all over the Puget Sound area. Kind of entertaining at times. Just looking at the repeater map that has got to be maybe 130 miles from my location. I'm about 40 miles outside the green circle. I am up on top of a 500 foot hill so probably is line of sight for me. I don't use repeaters at this time as I just use GMRS to talk to local friends and family. But nice to know how great the range can really be.

Impressive. You're in the RF holy grail of height and water. Would be curious if you can hit the repeater back. 

[WRWE456]

I have not tried but I'm just using an HT so not likely. Farthest simplex I have managed so far is about 20 miles and it was getting scratchy.

[nokones]

My Sun City West 625 Repeater has a Laird FG4695 5 dB omni antenna about 30' to the tip and I am getting about 20 miles out on flat terrain.

[MarkInTampa]

Two repeaters 24/7 at 30 miles. On rare occasion when the conditions are right there is a monster repeater 160 miles away. I am in Florida - not a lot of mountains.

[jdfog2]

I'm new to this. Was able to hear the Greencastle (Indiana) repeater crystal clear (sounded like a cell phone) 28.7 miles away between Beech Grove (Morgan County) and Martinsville this morning at someones house that lives in a valley in a very hilly area. I didn't expect to pick up anything there. That Greencastle repeater has suprised me. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by jdfog2
clarity

[WRWR489]

I managed to touch Simpsonville tonight, a little rough but forty miles from me.

 

[Luish19779]

Broadnet GMRS Repeater System on Bronx NY and now I am part of it with my Simplex repeater Node. We have Net every Thursday at 8 pm.

[KAF6045]

20 hours ago, WRWE456 said:

I have not tried but I'm just using an HT so not likely. Farthest simplex I have managed so far is about 20 miles and it was getting scratchy.

You could be surprised. We had a day last summer when 2m propagation was such that a Wisconsin pair in (I don't recall the exact cities but this gives the idea) Milwaukee and Sheboygan were talking to each other -- using the W8IRA linked repeater system that basically runs along US-131 in Michigan (Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Cadillac, others)

[gortex2]

Not to rain on your parade but not all the "repeater" coverage circles are correct. Until you use it you wont know. 

[wayoverthere]

22 hours ago, WRWE456 said:

I have not tried but I'm just using an HT so not likely. Farthest simplex I have managed so far is about 20 miles and it was getting scratchy.

Height and obstructions (or lack of) can be big factors.

 

I can reach one in central CA from 60ish miles out, both from home (the base radio) and from the 3rd floor hotel room on a HT. Ive also managed 75 miles to a 70cm ham repeater in the same area on the west side of the valley, with a 5 watt HT from high ground on the east side of the valley.

There's another gmrs repeater east of town near the national park set up by one of the ham clubs that Incan regularly reach at 60ish miles out from various places around town on 10 watts from the mobile....their testing indicated it usable pretty much across the valley till you clear the hills headed into the coast range.

[WashingtonMatt]

On 4/16/2023 at 12:42 PM, gortex2 said:

Not to rain on your parade but not all the "repeater" coverage circles are correct. Until you use it you wont know. 

For sure. Our case is a good example. The repeater owner linked to his webpage with information on his repeaters. He provided a RF propagation map that seems pretty accurate. The Cascade and Olympic mountains create a pretty hard cutoff, so the the coverage "circle" is anything but. I live at the north end of this map and can say the repeater is very strong much further north of the coverage circle. The primary users of the repeater seem to be around the south end.

 

[WRQS901]

We've had a check in on our net once from Selma, NC (170ish miles) on the Stone Mountian 550 repeater.

[MarkInTampa]

There was one heck of a band opening this morning in Florida. My house in the Tampa area to Miami Dade 700 repeater full scale.

 

[WRPT357]

I have a 90 mile radius Repeater south of me that I can hit from 65 miles away, and another with a 65 mile radius roughly 50 miles away.   The 90 mile radius repeater is by far the busiest of both, but confident I can hit either one from most places I offroad.

[kmcdonaugh]

Flintrock Hill repeater in the Austin, Tx area easily has the most coverage, I've personally hit it 40 miles away and other people have claimed to hit it up to 60 miles

[CentralFloridaGMRS]

Florida Home has one near us listed about 30 miles but I think it goes about 40 miles. When we go to our home in Tennessee they have one that transmits almost 80 miles. I have to say that Tennesse does a great job with GMRS repeaters. Maine has some good ones as well when I visit. 

[CentralFloridaGMRS]

On another note why are some repeaters listed as active when they're not? The Mouse 650 has been down for over a year yet it's listed as active

 

[gortex2]

13 hours ago, WRPG818 said:

On another note why are some repeaters listed as active when they're not? The Mouse 650 has been down for over a year yet it's listed as active

 

2 Reasons. Some folks list a repeater and never put it on the air. Also some people have great ambitions but in the end buy insufficient stuff and it doesn't work as they envisioned. 

[Sshannon]

27 minutes ago, gortex2 said:

2 Reasons. Some folks list a repeater and never put it on the air. Also some people have great ambitions but in the end buy insufficient stuff and it doesn't work as they envisioned. 

I think that misses his question.  For some repeaters the status in the database changes from “Active” to “Stale” (or some such language) after a period of time with no updates to the database, generally thought to be a year.  Why does the database continue to reflect that these repeaters are active? 

[nokones]

2 hours ago, gortex2 said:

2 Reasons. Some folks list a repeater and never put it on the air. Also some people have great ambitions but in the end buy insufficient stuff and it doesn't work as they envisioned. 

Or three, they try to put a repeater package together on the Cheap with a couple of CCRs and learned that they won't work and won't go to the next level and do it right by investing in a real repeater package. 

I learned that lesson and did it right? I should've not watched that video from buy2wayeadios.com. That was a good move on their part to help sell lots of radios.

[CentralFloridaGMRS]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:16 AM, gortex2 said:

2 Reasons. Some folks list a repeater and never put it on the air. Also some people have great ambitions but in the end buy insufficient stuff and it doesn't work as they envisioned. 

The Mouse 650 has been on the air for some time before it went off over a year ago yet it still shows active. When other repeaters go off they show they're off. This one still shows it's active and I can assure you it's off the air.