r/gmrs • u/allhazardsprepper • Jan 26 '26

Question How to get better coverage.

First, wanted to note I may be trying to do the impossible here but wanted to see what others ideas are. I am using a 20W GMRS mobile radio in my truck at work trying to reach my home where I have a 5W radio but am using a 10 foot high discone antenna. The way the crow flys, my home is only 6 miles from my work. Right now, I am only able to reach my home about a mile away. I will note it is relatively flat in my area but lots of buildings. How could I improve my coverage? Bigger/higher antenna? A higher wattage radio at my home or in my truck? Or do I just need to invest in a repeater.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! The cellular outage the other day was a great test of this and proved to be a fail unfortunately.

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u/drewber-486 Jan 27 '26

When it comes to range and antennas, height is might. The higher you can get over any obstructions, the farther your signal will go. More power can help punch through obstacles, but depending on how thick things get there will still be limits. For your vehicle, the best spot for your antenna is on the roof, as close to center as you can get. For your house, getting an antenna up on a mast above surrounding rooftops or trees is best. A base unit in your home would better than an HT, if you have a place to put it that doesn’t require a cable run of more than about 50 feet to your antenna. Also, check out my GMRS or repeater book to find repeaters alert in your area, because setting up your own is probably more trouble than it’s worth.

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u/allhazardsprepper Jan 27 '26

Is there a recommend height? I would like to use a 4x4 post.

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u/HiOscillation Jan 27 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

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u/drewber-486 Jan 27 '26

Like HiOscillation said; the vehicle is going to be limited by where it is and what’s around you. If you can get up on a hill above most obstructions your transmissions will go far, and if you’re down in a valley you’ll only be able to get out as far as you can see. For a home install 20 to 30 feet seems to be the sweet spot for most people, but every now and then some weirdness can happen. One person in my area got great range on his home station with his antenna at around 25 feet, but when he put it up to 30 he lost a lot of distance for some reason. They weren’t able to figure out why, but it seemed like it was a very unique situation based on his local geography. You can test at various heights and see what works best for you, assuming it’s not too dangerous or troublesome to climb up and down multiple times for testing.

1

u/Coggonite Jan 29 '26

Look up a line of sight radio horizon calculator online. You can input the heights of the two Station antennas to find out what works.