How Far Does a 10mW Hotspot Actually Transmit?

Hotspots are becoming increasingly popular for hams who operate digital modes. They offer the ability to access various digital networks without clogging up the local repeater, but just how far does a hotspot work? Will it be usable across your yard or across the city?

 

I get about 500' or so outside the house with the rubber duck antenna and hotspot on my desk. YMMV

 

At those frequencies, it's all about antenna gain and pattern.

 

I had a CW contact on 14.318 MHz that spanned about 30 miles running 20 mW with a single transistor transmitter.... does that count?

Dave
W7UUU

 

What is the point of a local repeater?

 

I can get about 8 blocks from mine with a "stock" antenna on the hotspot and a mag mount antenna on my car.

 

The point of the local repeater is to give those who like to monitor the repeater white noise to listen to while they wait for someone to use the repeater so they can tell them to qsy to simplex because they are tieing up the repeater and breaking thier white noise zen.

 

Being north of the Twin Cities (Mpls/St. Paul), I am not readly able to hit DMR repeaters on a handheld or mobile. Being such, I have putputed my Sharkrf to a roof mounted Tram 1480. At 10mw I get a one mile radius (1.6km) around the QTH. Have yet to try it mobile.

May not be the best thing to do if there is a repeater handy or in an urban area: however, I stay away from repeater pairs and satellite frequencies (441.025) and all works well.

 

Across the city? Nope. Not hardly. Around the block when I'm out on my evening walk? Yes, which is more than good enough.

 

The only point of a digital repeater is, in addition to DMR/D-Star/Fusion/whatever, is that it is a repeater and you can chat locally on it.

Otherwise, with a hotspot, you don't have to worry about hogging it for use on your favorite reflector, etc. We had a D-Star repeater here for sometime. It's been down for a while, however, and nobody is much interested in putting it back up. Everybody has a hotspot and just doesn't see the point.