How many watts does a ham radio need?

While most popular handheld ham radios use rechargeable batteries and require 5 to 8 watts of power, there are much smaller models requiring only a few milliwatts and much bigger models that need more power – as much as 1500 watts. Power is one of the two major factors that determine the range of your ham radio.

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How far can a 10 watt radio transmit?

Thus the typical ranges with around 400 MHz frequency range with 1 W transmitter power are up to ~30 kilometers and up to ~80 kilometers with 10 W transmitter power. See sample picture of a RF link functional factors at the end of this document. The links can be extended by using repeater radio stations.

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