How Far Can I Talk With My Ham Radio? Here’s the Max Range

Within the United States, Ham radio operators can use 26 different “bands” or groups of frequencies with their radios.

According to the National Association for Amateur Radio, this includes everything above 1.8 Megahertz to 275 Gigahertz. This is a pretty wide range that technically covers HF, VHF, UHF, SHF, and EHF frequencies.

In fact, depending on the band that you use, you can talk with your friends on the other side of town or communicate with people across the world.

So, choosing the right frequency for your communications will have a major impact on your range. That being said, the majority of Ham radio operators stick to VHF and UHF frequencies.

Here’s what you need to know about how choosing to use either VHF or UHF affects your range:

The height of an antenna has a major impact on the amount of range that you can get with your Ham radio. This is especially true at frequencies above 2MHz, as anything above this frequency, works on line-of-sight transmission and can’t bend around the curvature of the Earth.

Therefore, your maximum communication range with a Ham radio is the distance to the horizon line based on your antenna height.

With that in mind, your distance to the horizon (in miles) is calculated at:

… where D is the distance in miles and H is the height of your antenna in feet.

So, someone using a handheld radio that’s positioned at 5’ off the ground would have a theoretical horizon of 3.16 miles. Meanwhile, a fixed station antenna that’s 20’ high would have a theoretical horizon of 6.33 miles.

Increasing the height of your antenna is one of the easiest ways to extend your range. However, your communication range is limited not only by the height of your antenna, but by that of the antenna receiving your transmission.

This means that two radio stations that are transmitting to each other will be able to communicate over a longer range than two handheld radios. As we’ll see, however, this “theoretical horizon” distance is just that: theoretical.

Therefore, you can think of this calculation as an indication of the maximum possible communication distance rather than what you should expect every time you use your Ham radio.

Ham radios can also have different power modes that affect the maximum distance they can transmit. To get the maximum range you should change the device to a mode with the most power output.

Radio signals aren’t very good at traveling through solid objects, such as mountains and buildings. Indeed, trying to talk through obstacles is a surefire way to reduce the range of your radio communications.

This is why we almost never communicate as far as our maximum theoretical range says we should be able to. Every time a radio wave has to pass through an object, the strength of the signal decreases, thereby shortening your overall range.

As I’ve mentioned, UHF frequencies are better at traveling through buildings and other objects in urban environments because of their higher energy wavelengths.

What this means for you, as a Ham radio operator, is that to maximize your range, you need to choose the appropriate frequency bands for your location. Additionally, it’s important to understand the limitations that your surrounding terrain has on your potential communication range.

The final factor I’ll touch on when it comes to Ham radio range is the “strength” or “power” of your radio. Signal strength is measured in watts, and there’s a big difference in strength between a handheld unit and a typical commercial radio station.

While commercial stations will broadcast between 50,000 – 100,000 watts, handheld radios usually have just 0.5-5 watts of power. There are also laws about the signal strength of amateur radios, and Ham radios can generally have up to just 5 watts of power.

Simply put, the higher the signal strength (or watts) of a radio, the further it can travel. So, a 5 watt Ham radio is going to be able to transmit further than a 2 watt Ham radio with the same antenna height and in the same terrain.

Using a minimal amount of power at about a half watt, the range of these units will only extend around two miles.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations require no extra license to use these radios (unlike HAM radios) since they’re low power, even though they use some of the same frequencies as a GMRS radio. The best examples of these are the two-way radios that you find in plastic packaging at your local hardware store.

GMRS is the runner-up to Ham radio in terms of traveling distance. It is a UHF band service and requires a license in order to use it. Fortunately, it is a family license as opposed to the Ham radio individual licensing. You also won’t have to apply for multiple license levels as you would with a Ham radio.

GMRS allows for voice transmission and even simple messaging, although it falls short of a Ham radio by maxing out at 50 watts. To compare, a Ham radio can reach upwards of 1500 watts.

GMRS is also limited by range, which is typically upwards of 30 miles depending on terrain.

You won’t need a general license or technician license with a CB radio because it’s limited to only 4 watts of power. This means at full power a CB radio will only have a transmission range of about 4 miles. The main problem with these radios is that if there is a hill or some trees blocking the signal then it would effectively get distorted or lost.

For easy reference here is a chart outlining the main differences between each type of radio service.