QTH.COM Swap Chat

hi here is some questions from a newbe ,but oldy in years (54 ).
I live in Seattle and we have plenty of hills in the area.I am trying to get some friends of mine to get their licenses so we can all get on the air.two are now studying for the test and four are thinking about it. The farthest distance between us in miles is about 26 miles. What Frequency would work best on simplex? I only have my tech license. I have this program i downloaded from http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html i haven't got the program to work completely but as far as elevation goes if we stood on top of our houses with super dooper telescopes ( and of course chopped all the trees and tore down all the houses and buildings in the way ) we can see each other or at least most of us The nearest persons to each other are 1.5 miles apart. under this circumstances would the 6 meter band work ?.I have read that the 6 meter band is not opened all the time (not quite sure on what the real interpretation on that is ) so would that effect our communicating with each other. would 2 meters be able to cover that amount of distance .oh almost forgot the equipment used. yaesu ft-817nd or similar. I also got some information on this web page
http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/antenn.html
the distance calculator informs us that the two most distant base need an antenna at least 85 feet tall.So what are the recommendations?? oh yea in doing some research on the net someone else had a similar question and most of the answers were just do the repeaters or need more information.
well that is it so now get those wheels a turning.
thanks 73
P>S> call sign KE7DIS

Well Mr. Barron just for food for thought, depending on how many of you are interested in "the good ole rag chew" you certainly could "POOL" your resources, and look at installing a 2 Meter Repeater Installed up High, in your area, which also can be such a Life-Saving Tool in an Emergency - Then (because of money resources) most all of you could get in to it easily, without a lot of investment (Towers and such) on each operators part. As far as Pure Simplex... Personally, I used a 2 Meter antenna Tower mounted, at 100 Feet just above my HF Beam, and with about 100 Watts output (213 Feed line) was able to cover about 70 to150 Miles quite easily, (better depending on Band conditions.) Of course I remember because I used a beam up there, sometimes it was a "Pain" with all my friends because of it's Directional design, and having to turn it, to hear one or another as I desired. So many times for Local enjoyment, the Omni Directional placed up high, on a good tower will serve it's pourpose very well. It always came daown to the same thing, which friend I was chatting with and how much investment he or she had invested in Simplex operation also. The Higher the better - for "Line of Sight" but with good friends and some Club or private investment someone with a good tower can HOST a repeater, and many can enjoy it that way.

thank you N5JFJ for replying to me. Because of the little knowledge about this we have ( unless we study and learn fast ) putting up our own repeater would be a project a year or two down the road. But that is food for thought.Right now two of my friends are studying and the others think about it. We would all have to jump into it. at least i got my license and will enjoy talking to other how ever i can
73