>> Transmitting watts cost $$, even on the low side (100 watts) <<
Sure. But a good antenna will normally give you “more bang for the buck” than will an increase in power — assuming you don’t live in an apartment or in a covenant-restricted neighborhood.
“...a good antenna will normally give you “more bang for the buck” than will an increase in power...”
Yes Sir - I’m with you 10,000%!
I’m currently in the market for an antenna analyzer for my first purchase as I want to “roll my own” from feedline to balun to antenna. I’m good to go with room for at least 80m. I may just be able to squeeze in something for 160m (it will be tight)...
Even if you are an apartment dweller, you can find repeaters with less than a watt of transmitting power.
The contests the ARRL have and their awards are excellent, in that it helps educate new HAMs that it isn’t all about power.
Also, base stations are great. The true value of HAM comms is that its also mobile, and meant to be mobile. Guess which form of communication was both reliable and served to knit all the related responders in a single net at the Oso landslide?
Amateur, despite the millions on millions spent by the various local, state, and federal alphabets on comms gear.
Same with Katrina, same with almost every other major disaster in the last 25 or so years.
Some guy with an ICOM 31 is all it takes, or even a Baofeng.
I know folks keeping radios and spare batteries in faraday boxes. Even nuclear war can’t stop amateur radio.