Here's a post from somebody on another board that knows about ham radio:
...she did use 20 meters and that would have been best for talking very long distances, I would have rather seen 40 meters if I wanted to stay with in the US, or even 80 meters for something a little closer. But then 80 is much better at night.
But I have talked and can at any time talk across our state on 80 meters, 40 meters daytime would be more talking across the US, Like Michigan to florida.
At night you would get all the stuff from across the pond to other foreign countries. It gets longer distance at night. So she used 20 meters you could see it was day time. and worked fine. But the advantage is a much shorter antenna.
If I was going to use it for US emergencies I would use 40 and 80 meters, even tho the antenna is a little larger. We use 80M all the time here in the state. to talk state wide. day or night
