Line of Site is a bit of a misnomer but is accurate in respect to ionosphere propagation which occurs in Short Wave (actually longer waves then VHF) Radio. There are atmospheric conditions that will propagate VHF signals many hundreds of miles. It's been a while, but line of sight really means from and to just below the horizon. cu -----Original Message----- From: owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net [mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net]On Behalf Of ralph diaz Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 12:44 PM To: Paddlewise Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] VHF Radio - Line of Sight Limitations CA Kayaker wrote: > > Doug: > Keep in mind that VHF is "Line of Sight". Regardless of the power rating, > sitting in a kayak with a hand held VHF radio with short rubber duck > antenna will make for short transmit distances. You will find that even > talking to another kayaker over a short distance may become a > problem. Increase in transmission power is of little help in these > cases. This seems to be what is said but I wonder how correct this is, I mean line of sight. When I first got my radio, I tuned it on and was able to get marine traffic out on the Hudson and East Rivers. I live in a Westside brownstone, i.e. a low building in a neighborhood increasingly surrounded by tall apartment buildings, the result of our booming economy and people having money to burn on luxury dwellings with views. I have no direct line of sight with the river particularly with the NY Waterways ferries I hear traffic calls from. And the East River is well across town with a two mile wide swatch of tall buildings between me and it. And I hear that river traffic too. This makes me think that there is also a bounce and reflect signal aspect too. Clearly, if you are sitting deep in a valley with mountains completely surrounding you, you will not likely hear from one in the next deep valley. But with buildings and streets you must get some bouncing around effect. I would think that the same would hold in open water along coastlines where a signal would bounce off this little hill to another little hill and reach someone well out of your line of sight. Maybe as you say, Coast Guard repeater stations help out. But given the cost of NY real estate and the configuration of buildings I doubt if I am benefiting from a repeater station while in the middle of my concrete and steel jungle of the city. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
The thing to remember about power ratings vs. this line of sight issue is that higher power may allow you to key the mic and punch through channels full of useless chatter with an urgent message, but it won't send your message any further in terms of distance. Radio discipline in most major metropolitan areas in this country is ridiculous --- with hailing channels full of CB talk and fishing reports. That's the time when a few more watts may be of value, but, in routine operation from down in the sea clutter, where we are, it generally doesn't matter. Jack Martin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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