Conversely, I've used a handheld running 500mw from the cabin of an aircraft at 700 feet to talk to a repeater with an antenna at 50ft over 70 miles away, with a good enough signal to activate the repeater's autopatch (a phone connection) and make a phone call.
I was hiking the AT a couple of weeks ago and was at 4100ft ASL on the Southern rim of Burkes Garden on the Tazewell/Bland Co VA border.
I worked a guy in Winston Salem NC on a half-watt on a VX-170 with a rubber duck antenna(not factory but a 3rd party upgrade. The factory would still have worked fine).
The repeater was in Sparta and was on a freq I had saved in the radio for Charleston,WV and I was curious where it was to be so strong(and by the calls, it was obviously in '4' Land where CH, WV is '8' Land).
The repeater was 40 miles away and the fellow on the otheer end was 90 miles from my location as measured on Google Earth.
1/2 Watt and five by five signal.
There is no substitute for elevation.
My brother saw Deliverance and bought a Bow. I saw Deliverance and bought an AR-15.
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