nateted4 wrote:Yah, it's a weird rule. It prevents one from running the legal power, but constructing a 12 element high gain Yagi-Uda and talking across the country/ocean.
We don't operate near the 11 meter band, but for field day my club always uses 5 watts max and regularly make contacts on the coast to coast. That's just to say that low RF output power isn't limiting one from talking long distance on the citizen's band, nor are the antennas limiting(since you can build your own). Really, it's this law and the shifting nature of propagation on this band that prevents it from being used as a long distance mode.
I'd be interested in reading that law, considering that there's many natural and man-made variables that affect how far a person can talk at a given power level. On a 14,000ft peak, I can talk a lot farther than somebody in the 'burbs. I do know there is a power limit on CB radios, I think 5W, though my memory could be off, but I'm skeptical of distance limits.
On a different note, using a URC-119 at 500W on CB channels will have you talking a good ways out
