How many watts does a ham radio need?

For example, a 25-watt marine radio will roughly have a maximum range of 60 nautical miles (111 km) between antennas mounted on tall ships, but that same radio will only have a range of 5 nautical miles (9 km) between antennas mounted on small boats at sea level.

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.

Anything greater than 4-6 Watts on a handheld is not safe as the antenna is too close to the body and unsafe RF levels will do damage to tissue. If you have ever grabbed an antenna while it is being transmitted on, you’ll know why they don’t make 50 Watt handhelds.