CB Radio Talk

hi All, canadian pete in england here. i've been wondering.. and you guys across the pond are best qualified to answer,, whats the long distance anyone has made contact via GROUNDWAVE,not skip? like 3 in the mornin when the band has best chance of being "dead" as regards skip. i'm talking barefoot not boots, although any antenna is fair enough. barefoot like 10-20 w max. not a kilowatt etc. i'm aware there are "signal enhancments" possible, like even weak tropo and forms of ducting and refraction/reflection can and do happen to increase ground wave range at 11 meters. longest contact i've made with 12w, and 3ele yagi has been 160miles around 5am. 0 signal and readability 2-3. i guess for you guys 100-300 miles in the norm.?

I think that you are referring to "Line Of Sight" distance.

If so then an a radio signal from antenna that is 60 ft tall will go about 11 miles to the horizon. If the other guy is also at 60 ft tall then the communication range will be about 22 miles. The CB radio signal will follow the curve of the earth a little bit but not enough to significantly increase the distance.

That is for antennas on flat land with no obstructions. If both antennas are on mountains then the signal will go further. Height is might. Check the internet for line of sight calculator web sites if you want to fiddle with variable heights and distances.

However atmospheric propagation will always happen and can extend or reduce the anticipated line of sight expectations.

Bluerunner wrote:I think that you are referring to "Line Of Sight" distance.

If so then an a radio signal from antenna that is 60 ft tall will go about 11 miles to the horizon. If the other guy is also at 60 ft tall then the communication range will be about 22 miles. The CB radio signal will follow the curve of the earth a little bit but not enough to significantly increase the distance.

That is for antennas on flat land with no obstructions. If both antennas are on mountains then the signal will go further. Height is might. Check the internet for line of sight calculator web sites if you want to fiddle with variable heights and distances.

However atmospheric propagation will always happen and can extend or reduce the anticipated line of sight expectations.

your math cant be correct because we talk all the time mobile to mobile 30 miles easy and our mobile antenna's are only 6-7 feet off the ground,, base to mobile 60 miles easy and base to base 100 miles

I talked to another forum member, Spacecricket, on a barefoot radio,(tuned) cobra 29 ltd chrome, and a MOSFET General Lee, using a 102" whip 40 miles away late at night on a regular basis a few years ago. He has a good sounding base setup that probably helped and Im probably 1000ft higher in elevation then he is but we made regular contact all summer that year. Thats the furthest barefoot contact I've ever made on a regular basis with a mobile setup. I could rarely make that same contact even running power during the day using my 102" whip but he could still make the trip here on his base station. He had a lot of loud neighbors that I couldn't get over during the day is the main reason I couldn't make the trip back in peak hours even using a little heat.

Line of sight is line of sight at CB frequencies.

Anything else is atmospheric propagation. "Skip" can happen hundreds of miles away or just a very few miles away too. It just depends on the angle the signal hits the atmosphere at. If the skip signal meets the ground wave in phase at the receiving antenna it improves the signal, if the skip meets the ground wave out of phase it can reduce or totally negate it.

Generally line of sight communication can be reliably anticipated, unless acted on by out of phase atmospheric propagation. Fortunately the bounce nearer to the transmitter is often much weaker than the bounce further away as the steep angle doesn't reflect as well as a lower angle further away. That helps to keep short range line of sight communication more reliable.

Mobile to mobile 30-40 miles. My mobile to a base with 7 element beam somewhere around 90 miles. The static level has to be very low.

I have made ground wave contacts from my location in Baltimore to 2 different stations in Ocean City, MD, a distance of slightly over 92 miles straight line, (not road miles), yes conditions were just right, no Mother Nature noises interfering, and no it was not skip. You need to take into consideration the elevation of the two stations, I am 400ft above sea level with a clear view to the east, nothing in elevation higher and the other station was on top of a high rise ocean front condo with a clear view of 360 deg. Yes equipment used and antenna does play a big part in that distance.

3's

Greg

Mobile to Mobile 20-40 miles. My mobile to base-60 miles. The best ever (for me) was Mobile to Mobile right a 98 miles about 4 am a few years back.

Mobile to Mobile, my house to Fort Worth TX, which would be about 40+ miles....Base to Base tho I talked to Houston and Austin, and San Antonio on SSB way past dark after the noise level dropped to almost nothing, which is between 200-250 miles.

jessejamesdallas wrote:Mobile to Mobile, my house to Fort Worth TX, which would be about 40+ miles....Base to Base tho I talked to Houston and Austin, and San Antonio on SSB way past dark after the noise level dropped to almost nothing, which is between 200-250 miles.

I got a guy over there in your neck of the woods from GrandPrairie in my truck on the 979 and Little wil.

The longest I can remember was from my location in Washington Co. Ohio to Erie Pa. We both were using a Raker 4 on 39 LSB. Runner up was from my location to White Sulfur Springs, Wva.

From around East of Orlando, FL to Pensacola, Fl. About 300 miles give or take. Base to base.

How the heck are you guys making these long distance contacts.? Here in NJ I could never get out further than 10-20 miles from base to base and base to mobile. Forget mobile to mobile unless youre running power. I guess to many buildings and mountains in the way for me.

Water all around helps, and Mother Nature has to be in a very good mood! It's more fun sometimes than making contacts across the U.S. Mobile to base on SSB I can talk out to about 50-60 miles, if I go down by the water, which I have the intercoastal waterway and the beach less than 5 miles away, I can really get out with the mobile. Wild what getting near the salt water does.

This might help figure out how far you have really talked, http://distancecalculator.glo ... ulator.asp .

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Greg

373 miles it's says per the calculator you posted MD, that's from just North of Daytona Bch., FL. To Pensacola. Not bad I suppose.

Mobile to base, 131 miles. Sitting in front of my house in San Jose and talked to a base in Bass Lake, CA. on my Icom IC-735. He had elevation on his side and was taking to another station in Monterey, CA, 50 miles South of me so I called him after he finished his "radio check" with Monterey. It was a VERY quiet night and very low noise level on 11 meters SSB. I'd say it was probably 12-15 years ago, and radio activity has quieted WAY down on 11 meters in San Jose since.

And yes that is straight line or air distance.

Contact was 2PO803 out of Pensacola, FL per my log book shows it was on 27.495 USB.

I use this site to find out how far "as the crow fly's"...http://www.indo.com/distance/

Here is some good reading to show these distances are possible, https://rdl.train.army.mil/ca ... /chap2.htm .

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Greg

MDYoungblood wrote:Here is some good reading to show these distances are possible, https://rdl.train.army.mil/ca ... /chap2.htm .

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Greg

I get a Warning Message when I click that link MDYoungblood....

jessejamesdallas wrote:

MDYoungblood wrote:Here is some good reading to show these distances are possible, https://rdl.train.army.mil/ca ... /chap2.htm .

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Greg

I get a Warning Message when I click that link MDYoungblood....

Might be because it is a military training website. What warning is coming up?

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Greg

MDYoungblood wrote:

jessejamesdallas wrote:

MDYoungblood wrote:Here is some good reading to show these distances are possible, https://rdl.train.army.mil/ca ... /chap2.htm .

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Greg

I get a Warning Message when I click that link MDYoungblood....

Might be because it is a military training website. What warning is coming up?

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Greg

"Your connection is not private"...Attackers might be trying to steal your information...(example: passwords, messages, credit cards...)
https://rdl.train.army.mil/ca ... /chap2.htm

Yep I got the same warning on my PC, it doesn't show up on my Mac, goes straight through using my iPad too. I'm guessing it's a "Windows" and "Firefox" thing. Since it is a military website the DOD (Dept. of Defense) puts up a warning that they can access information (who you are) for viewing this info. Firefox asks if you want to proceed, if you do you can always remove the extension later. Don't click okay if you have something to hide, my "Warning".



3's

Greg