Good news everybody! Formerly on a 40' temporary tower post Hurricane Michael, the GARS/W4WEB repeater antenna has been relocated up – way UP – to 220'. This makes for an enormous improvement in coverage area. Shown below are Egli model predictions of coverage to a car antenna from the former and current antenna heights; the radii are 10 and 22 miles, respectively.
Coverage to higher base station antennas will be somewhat larger. Last night several of us were able to get rough but readable coverage out to 40 miles, just past Carrabelle. That's slightly over the horizon (27mi), but within Egli predicted range (46mi); generally useable for fun, but not entirely reliable for an emergency.
BTW the numbers for the GARS/W4WEB repeater are 147.300 103.5, standard positive offset.
With the Port St. Joe repeater antenna raised and the Carrabelle repeater upgraded, VHF coverage of the Forgotten Coast, Area X, and adjacent regions is nearly complete from Tallahassee to Panama City.
This is much, much better than the patchy situation we had just two years ago.
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