My Own Long Distance Contacts

(As featured in Radio Active Magazine)

My first attempt at a long distance contact resulted in an 8 mile contact between Blyth, Northumberland and Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear,  with the help of David (M0DAD).

On 11/08/00 I spoke to two gentlemen (John and Barry) working at an open cast site Near Ellington in Northumberland from the top of the pit heap in Blyth, a distance of 9 miles which is amazing considering that they were using their handhelds in the cabs of heavy earth moving vehicles !

Many thanks to John and Barry for taking the time to talk to me.

On 20/08/00 I achieved a new personal long distance record of 15.1 miles between Blyth pit heap and Amble harbour with the help of Peter (2P3TE) who was using his newly acquired Telcom TW 1000 handheld.

On 24/06/01 again with the help of Peter (2P3TE) I achieved a slightly improved contact of 16.5 miles between Blyth pit heap and a location near Warkworth.

On Sunday 5th August 2001 I made a 30 mile contact. See DX WEEKEND PAGE

On Sunday 23rd March 2003 I made several contacts with stations around the North East of England including: David - 29 miles away on the Stanhope Moors, George and Joe - 17 miles away near Swarland, Steve - 16 miles away in Longframlington and John - 7.5 miles away in Ellington.

** It should be noted that I live on the coast just above sea level so the above contacts show what can be done in a poor location. Those of you fortunate enough to live on high ground should do much better !

Other Users' Long Distance Contacts

Clive from Redditch E-Mailed me to claim a record of 22 miles between Lickey Hills (South Birmingham) and Malvern Hills (West Worcestershire) using a Motorola 200 and a Motorola 288.

Well done Clive !

I have heard that the Motorola has a very good receive which no doubt helped you make this contact. Keep up the good work !

A further E-Mail from Clive on 17/09/00 told of an amazing 40 Mile contact between Birdlip (South of Gloucester) and Clent Hills (Near Kidderminster) using a pair of Telcom TW1000's. At £69 per pair these radios are great value. "It was scratchy, but contact was made", says Clive.

So folks do you think that anyone can beat 40 Miles on un-modified PMR446 sets ?

We shall wait and see !

Craig reports a long distance contact between Stockton-On-Tees and Cockayne Ridge (North Yorks Moors) which is 15.6 miles using a Motorola TA200.

Well done Craig. 

Hello to Bigyun2000 who has made a long distance contact of 16.8 miles between North Hull and Roos (Near Withernsea) using a pair of Telcom TW1000's.

E-Mail from Dave (G7KEH):

Hi There!

Our Long Distance contact was as follows

2:15pm 2nd july 2000, 75 miles using two unmodified tw1000 radios with standard alkaline batteries. I (Dave G7KEH) was at Nebo in Anglesy in Wales 500 ft asl and Bob G6GVG was on Matchmoor Lane Winter Hill Nr Bolton Manchester and we made contact!!!

Is there any limit to the range on these things ?

I think you had a spot of ducting there Dave !!!

WELL DONE !!!!!

Well done to David Noon who made a 15 mile contact using his Binatone Roamaround 100 from South Wirral.

See Davids review of the Binatone Roamaround 100

An amazing contact was reported on 4th August 2001 during the DX WEEKEND by Simon and Alex on "Brown Pike" in Cumbria who spoke to Ned near St. Asaph in North Wales a distance of 78 miles - Fantastic guys !

Hi a friend told me about this web site, very interesting. I use Goodmans and I was on top of the hills near Glasgow (Campsy Fells) and made a contact into Edinburgh no mods to the hand set. Distance about 55 miles.

2BOBK Denis

150Km Contact On FRS - Info Via E-Mail

On the afternoon of Wednesday 27th Feb while at a place called Pit house which is an elevated area about four miles west of Durham city myself, Paul callsign Delta Tango 120 made radio contact with Wayne, callsign November Echo 164 who was at the Galleries at Washington Tyne and Wear. I was using a new Motorola T6222 and although there was no signal strength reading  from Wayne who I think was using a Binatone the audio was BBC quality and we spoke for over 10 mins. The initial contact came from myself calling on channel 8-8 for any stations. The distance between ourselves was about 12 miles. I have to say the new Motorola which I read about on this site is the bees knees, it is a pleasure to operate.

On 23/03/03 David(M0DAD) made a 38 mile contact from the Stanhope Moors to George and Joe in Swarland in the North East of England.

On May the 2nd, 2003 a very loud & clear conversation took place between a hill above Galaxidi and a place called Ziria Mt.Kilini in North-West of Peloponisos. The distance between these two points is approximately 45Km and there is sea between the two mountains (Korinthiakos bay, Greece).
PMR radios used were the WT-401 (TE-200) and transmission took place on channel 3 code 00.

Greetings,
Dimitris from Greece

Czech National DX Record

Hello Delboy,

On Saturday I have made the Czech National DX Record of some 219km (136.8 miles) from the QTH of Cerna Studnice at 869m a.s.l in the north of the country to Jan, Fousac Junior located in the far south west of the country near the border of Germany. His QTH called Pancir at at 900m a.s.l. Also a contact was made 136km (85miles) to a station in the east of the country and also more contacts of 11km, 14km, 95km. So we were lucky and linked the far north, to the far south of the country. Mine was the first qso and then followed by Jerry. A real great day and another small piece of the CZECH PMR HISTORY MADE.

I was using the tti frequency 122tx and also the Intek 4000l

And, station Jerry from Nove Mesto made the same contact at a distance of 234km (146.2 miles)

He was using a Hoffer 3381 and a Pendrek 446 ¼ antenna and was at a height of 1124m a.s.l

Regards

Simon 007 / CZ001