When it comes to VHF,, height is might. Years ago (1978) I got a Wilson WE-800 (3rd production run, never buy anything till revision 3, Story there if asked for)
Well, Where I worked if the Detroit Tigers were having a "night game" going home at quitting time was out of the question.. Impossible to exit the parking lot.
So I grabbed my new toy and got in the elevator, 21 stories later I got out, Tuned around and the repeater I hit was in Adrian, about sixty miles away.. 1 watt and a rubber duck, hand held.
Chatting with some hams in Toledo Ohio (Also about 60 miles from Adrian) we had a VE3 try to join, about all we got was VE3 (not the rest of his call) so I switched to input, then relayed, then finally the VE3 and I went to 146.52 and chatted simplex.
He's running something like either 40 watts ERP at 30 feet or the other way around.
I made the trip, him, not so well.... I seem to recall chatting with A ham in Wisconson when I lived in Battle Creek, Mi... No linked repeaters back then.
Of course on 42 MHZ (Yes, I know, not a ham band) Detroit to Alaska no repeater.
(A construction company and the Police Department I dispatched shared a repeater pair, I was in the "Middle" of that repeater (That is
Receiver----Me==--Transmitter
And I could talk to the crew in Alaska just fine. Same CTSS tone and everything.
Turn off the CTSS and I could hear California too.
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