100 watts from a handheld?

Absolutely, Lets explain. your humble little handheld radio (HT) is typically programmed to access a repeater that is somewhat local or at least “line of site” to wherever you may be operating.

In Southern California a repeater is very likely atop a very high mountain, in the case of the WG6OTA repeater on Sunset ridge it is about 5300 feet above sea level to the receive antenna array and assisted by a receive preamplifier. all of this allows easy reception of low power signals as long as there is little resistance or “shading” of the transmitted signal. going outdoors, using higher gain antennas are good options to improve reception at the repeater site.

Repeating that received signal. Upon receiving signal from those transmitters (on WG6OTA it would be 445.160) it automatically re-transmits (Repeats) on 449.160 in real time, utilizing a high wattage commercial style repeater capable of and programmed at 100 watts, you are effectively transmitting at those 100 watts from over 5100 feet above sea level.

The truly practical “Peak Envelope Power” at our antenna is likely closer to about 70 watts considering feedline losses, and passing through a “Circulator” and Canister filter to keep any spurious emission from effecting other radios on the site and other neighboring sites on Sunset Ridge.