35 Mile radius???

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone:) Is it really possible for the midland gxt1000 to talk to someone from 35 miles away??? Please reply:confused: Thanks

2

I’m certainly no expert, but probably not, unless one of you is on top of a remote mountain and the other person is on another remote mountain or valley. Most range claims by manufacturers are very inflated. I wouldn’t expect more than 5 miles under ideal circumstances, and you probably won’t even get that much range.

Here’s a review of the radio.
http://www.twowayradioforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=783

3

You will almost never get that kind of range. The average distance you will get is about 1-2 miles. Here is where we go into why:

http://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2006/07/the_truth_about_range.aspx

4

I’ve gotten close to 5 miles with my very economic 1 watt set of Midland LXT320. This is from one spot near the side of a river to another spot by the same river. I guess you could say that it’s “over the water communications”. This was done outside of any building or vehicle because I did notice that range decreases while inside a vehicle.

5

Range for GMRS is line of sight. Once you have over 1 watt of power, increased power gives you almost no help.

The rule of thumb for reliable communications is, take the square root of the height of the antenna in feet, and that’s your range in miles. However, this applies at both ‘ends’, so you do that calculation for each end of the intended link, and add the two ranges.

Thus, handhelds: Antenna height, 5 feet. Range=square root of 5, namely 2.23 miles, same at both ends, for 4.46 (call it 4 1/2) miles. That’s what you can probably get over flat ground. Hills, trees, and buildings will shorten that range.

That little 2 watt (say) GMRS would talk 150 miles away… if the other end happened to be an astronaut in space… because you’d have line of sight.

The claimed ranges by manufacturers are for both ends on a mountaintop, with nothing in between those two mountaintops. If both ends are at 200 feet, with a nice valley in between, yep, you can get 28 miles. Meanwhile, in the real world, your actual usable range in a city or rough country is probably 1/2 to 1 mile.

6

Your reply is very informative. Thank you.