Realistic Radio Ranges

Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
    teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.

Proverbs 9:9

Instructing the wise is the entire premise behind Tactical Wisdom, so let’s get right to it.

The number one question NC Scout and I (along with our friend Randy at NotARubicon) get is, “yeah, but how far can I talk on this?”. Invariably, we give an honest answer, but the person then emails or mssages a week later and says “I bought this on your recommendation and I can’t talk to my family 100 miles away on it.” That’s right, physics is a thing.

In this article, I’m going to give some realistic range numbers based not on ridiculous claims by radio manufacturers or Sad Ham math where CB is always bad and similar license free bands always perform worse than directly adjacent amateur license bands because a license makes the radio go farther, but based on our experiences in teaching classes.

Now, on the rare occasions when I do teach a radio class, it’s not nearly as in-depth as an NC Scout class, but I’ve been in enough of his either training or lending a hand that I can talk intelligently about it. My classes focus entirely on tactical comms, while NC Scout’s covers tactical, strategic, and sustainment level comms. Come to class.

Listen, if you’re an amateur radio guy, you’re probably going to hate this article, so I invite you to bow out here. No need for the comments, we’ve heard them all.

First, let’s talk about handheld dual band (VHF/UHF) radios like the Baofeng UV 5R or the AR 152. The cold hard truth is that these aren’t actually bad radios. No, they don’t do all the things that a very expensive radio does, but they actually allow you to receive on a much broader spectrum than most high-end radios and you want to do more listening than talking. The features that make high end radios better for amateur radio (and they are) have absolutely no utility for tactical communications for prepared citizens. We’ve had guys bring their Yaesu and Icom units to class and get frustrated because their radios don’t have all the capabilities that the “cheap Chinese junk” Baofeng does.

Listen, hams, before you drop that comment, note that I said TACTICAL communications. Sure, as Randy frequently points out, the high end radios are great if you want to use something other than GRINDR to “make contact” with random men you don’t know, but that’s not what we’re doing. We are simply trying to reach each other at less than a mile or two of range.

From ANY handheld VHF/UHF radio, regardless of brand or power level, you are honestly only going to get 2-3 miles on UHF and 3-5 miles on VHF CONSISTENTLY. I know a guy who gets 8-9 miles on an AR-152, but he lives in a very flat area with no trees or buidlings. There are some things we teach in class to improve this, but that’s from ANTENNAS and LOCATION, not anything at all to do with the actual radio.

I’ll be honest, I have a lot of radios. As a contractor in the executive protection/private military industry, I have a good number of VERY high end Motorolas with all the bells and whistles and high efficiency antennas. Joel from Smoke River Ranch and Don the Pleb witnessed me testing the Motorolas against the Baofeng UV 5R that Joel was using that day on the ranch and the UV 5R OUT-PERFORMED the very nice Motorola. Yes, really. Sure the Motorola scans better, can do digital, and has AES 256 encryption, but in the areas that REALLY MATTER to us in a WROL situation, the Baofeng was the better tool for the job of communicating a couple of miles across rough and wooded terrain.

Let’s talk encryption, because all the tacti-cool bros say you need it. No, using hardware level encryption is LAZY and leads to compromise. We encrypt the MESSAGE, not the TRAFFIC. We teach you how to manually encode messages using One Time Pads and additional methods when you come to class. You don’t need encrypted radios to send encrypted messages. You need discipline and the skill set.

Back to the range question, you need a different radio set entirely to make long range contact, period. There is no way with VHF/UHF. You need an HF radio, and it doesn’t need to be high powered. In class, we regularly get 500-800 miles on a 5-10 watt radio using field expedient antennas. Again, the ANTENNA is more important than the radio. We teach you the HOW in class. Get into a Brushbeater (NC Scout) RTO Course.

Even with HF, while the units are more expensive, you don’t need to buy the most expensive and high-end radio, because the ANTENNA is what matters most.

Contrary to what the sad hams will tell you, CB is NOT dead. As I travel the country to go and teach classes, I keep a CB Radio in my SUV. I get radio traffic all day and all night. During class, we set up CB Jungle Antennas and pull in radio signals from 50-100 miles away. NC Scout and I once talked to a driver at least 40 miles from us using a handheld CB on a jungle antenna. CB has a lot of unique characteristics that make it an interesting band to use. There are also higher-powered units that you can buy.

Sad Hams: Yes, I know that 4 watts is the legal maximum and I would never exceed that. HOWEVER, switch on over to channel 6 and you’ll hear this one guy anywhere in the US blasting out a couple thousand watts and talking nonsense. He’s been doing it for decades and no one has kicked in his door. Relax.

Realistically, a CB radio with an external antenna will get you 3-20 miles at the allowable 4 watts (12 on Single Side Band). With the new allowing of FM CB’s, it’s become a good patrol-to-base radio unit for teams to carry into the field. You can find handheld CB units at the Brushbeater Store.

One last thing on the range question. Instead of always wanting a radio that will blast your signal as far as possible, ask yourself “how far do I really need to trasmit?”. You won’t be using the radio to have day-to-day conversations as radio isn’t really a replacement for cell phones. Realistically, you only want to reach across your compound or secure location, or reach other members of your foot formation within 500 meters of you. So, you don’t want the highest power and the most efficient antenna, you want the LOWEST power and the LEAST efficient antenna. Think security, not cell-phone replacement.

As you can see, like everything else in life, you need different tools for different jobs. Expensive also doesn’t always mean better. I hope this helps clarify some of your radio range questions.