We've had many discussions about when a new handheld (such as a Baofeng) comes out with increased power and how it should be a new "must have." Several of us have counseled antenna and height is more important than power. I finally got off my butt and modeled it graphically to give a better example. I picked a random location near the south shore of Lake Erie near Sandusky as it has some terrain, towns and water. I then plotted several coverage arenas under various conditions.
Dark Green: 2 handhelds at 5 watts with a 0 dB gain rubber duck antenna
Light Green: same handhelds at 10 watts
Yellow: same handhelds at 5 watts with a J-Pole (6 dB gain) antenna 15 feet (5 meters) in a tree.
As you can see, there's very little difference between the 5 and 10 watt radios under identical conditions as it's hard to find much of the dark green. 5 watts will give you longer battery life, and with a better antenna higher off the ground you get better comms too.
VHF - Link-03.bmp
Some additional Information:
- software used: Radio Mobile
- Frequency band: Ham VHF (144-148 MHz)
- Radio configuration: standard per app.
Exact coverage may vary based on your radio, but the only things changed were power, antenna gain and height of the antenna. If a radio is better or worse than the one modeled, then the coverage will scale accordingly.
It should also be noted that the power levels of HTs should be taken with an industrial-sized salt lick. An inexpensive SWR/Power meter specifically for HTs can be had fairly cheaply (sub $50) from Amazon under several brands (but really all the same it looks like):
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61dTL5vEz1L._AC_SL1500_.jpg) (https://a.co/d/3yQBsT0)