Practical comms fixes.

[Lightspeed]

Ogri:

No disagreement with anything HP has advised.

Re Baofeng UV5rs: Yes they are pretty much line of sight. But in hills line of sight can be a significant distance. My location is around 1500ft ASL, and my un-played with UV5r can reliably reach a repeater that is sited more than 80 miles from me. So, its not necessarily the equipment.


How to maximize inter-connectivity:

All stations to be set to EXACTLY the same frequency
All stations to hold their radios upright ti ensure all signals are vertically polarised.
All stations set deviation to WIDE,
All sations to set power to High
All stations to set CTCSS and DTS to ZERO = Off.
All stations radios to be set to the lowest possible squelch level.
Over-ride squelch when listening for distant stations.
At UHF and VHF frequencies, often moving just a few feet will greatly change signal strength.
All stations to have Roger-bleep turned-on. This can help make others aware that there are transmissions, even if they cannot hear spoken word, as the tone burst will often get through.

Assign one of the stations as Network control, with responsibility for coordinating communications across the group, and coordinate times for each unit to check in.

Example of Net Control communication:
Net Control<< This is Lightspeed listening for Harry P>>
Net Control<<Nothing Heard. Can any other stations hear Harry?>>
OGRI REPLY: <<Hi Lightspeed, Ogri here, Confirming that I can hear Harry>>
Net Control: << Thanks Ogri, Please confirm if he is OK and if he has any message for us>>
OGRI: <<Ogri calling Harry P. Lightspeed has asked me to relay request if you are OK or have any message to pass back?>>
OGRI: << Ogri calling Lightspeed. Harry OK. No messages to pass>>
Net Control: Thanks Ogri, all understood.
Net Control: This is Lightspeed listening for Mary>>

...and so on.

Re the mixed bag of transceivers in use in your group, beware that the super cheap Baofeng BF888/777 type equipment is lower powered than a UV5r, and that these units must be accurately set up to match the exact same frequencies and modes of the rest of the group. For these low cost machines, that setup is through a computer over a USB interface cable.

Degree of bend? At VHF and UHF virtually no bend in signal pathway. But look out for aircraft flying overhead. Often signals will reflect back off aircraft fuselages to extend range. There's also a phenomenon called knife edge reflection in which occasionally signals will bend back earthwards over ridgelines. I've never experienced the latter myself, but its well documented.

It is unlikely that full cost Ham gear is going to greatly improve comms among your group. However most current Yaesu equipment has a transponder system that informs when stations are in reach of one another...that could be a handy feature if you are looking for a hot spot from which to transmit.