200 Mile Contact Using Hand Held Radio During 2 Meter Band Opening

[jernito]

How far does that handheld normally transmit? Any further than a CB radio?

[RadioHamGuy]

@jernito Very much the same range on ground wave as a CB hand held radio but it does have SSB mode and that gives you a little more range like it would on CB also. The antenna is the main thing, if you hook it up to a base station antenna, it would work even better. When the band is open however, I can talk several hundred miles by skip, like you can on CB also except not as congested on ham so easier to work them.

[darynsax]

Awesome Im still somewhat new to ham radio only had my ticket a few years but never worked any skip on the 2 metre band as yet. Thanks for sharing it just goes to show what you can do on these small radio's

[RadioHamGuy]

@darynsax Sounds great, it can be a lot of fun working tropo on 2 meters. Range is extended out much longer than what you might be used to most of the time.

[zeproo]

what is the name of that long antenna ?

[CalAir1545]

What radio is that it looks great.

[RadioHamGuy]

@CalAir1545 I was using a Yaesu VX-5R running at maybe 4 watts output or so, I should have tried low power, I bet it would have still worked as good as the signals were that night.

[kd0otk]

I heard some chatter on .52 about someone in their garage making a long range contact. I'm in Elk River, MN.

[uncleben03]

10 meters was REALLY open today about 1800 central, I was listening to a guy in Sao Paul, Brazil when I was mobile. My farthest contact so far is 1200 miles mobile on 10, never had a DX contact on 2m though.

[alfonzo2000]

that should be great :-)

[alfonzo2000]

Get when the band is open i still get a thrill when it happens always remember first contact via aurora, like the 19"whip i use a yaesu ft60 ht .