5 feet? I would bin your freq counter and go buy a scout.
M.Rattenbury
www.ukmidlandscanner.co.uk
"Nelson" wrote in message
...
I am sure he means in the city where there may or may not be interference
from other sources, but 5 to about 25 feet is normal, like trying to get
that new freq from your local police you must almost walk by the car when
he
keys the mic.

"Bob Parnass" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 28 May 2004 06:57:07 -0400, Jim Mac Donald wrote:

Just keep in mind the capture range with most frequency counters is
about five
(5) feet for a VHF/UHF 5 watt handy talkie and twenty five (25) feet
for
a base
station or 35 watt vehicle transceiver. With a beam antenna and amp
it
may be
possible to get out five hundred (500) feet. ...

That sounds low. I tested MFJ 886 and an Aceco FC2002
frequency counters using an ICOM IC-32AT dual band
walkie-talkie on flat terrain -- line of sight conditions.
I published these results in Monitoring Times:

146 MHz:
MFJ886 - 261 ft.
FC2002 - 185 ft.

446 MHz:
MFJ886 - 145 ft.
FC2002 - 161 ft.

--

================================================== =======================
Bob Parnass, AJ9S GNU/Linux User
http://parnass.com