Sitting here in Rhododendron State Park in Fitzwilliam NH playing POTA. I am on a soft sked with a ham in AZ who is looking for New Hampshire. I’m readily available and always willing to play radio. Plus I was already in the area delivering bread to my sister.
Today I’m using my IC-7300 at 25 watts. My 10A fuses don’t support 50 watts. Ask me how I know…
If you sit in the forest long enough in September, you will get bonked with an acorn.
I’m terribly surprised at the very small difference between running 5 watts and 25 watts. I’m using a delta loop antenna today on 20 and the performance at 25 watts is barely better than 5 watts into a hamstick on my car’s roof. The littlest bit of scrutiny will disabuse anyone of the notion that this is a scientific opinion. But as the Elmers say, “Any antenna is better than no antenna”.
That said, above is the propagation pattern (20 m) over the past 15 minutes. The antenna is very close to the N-S plane.