Too much power equals nasty audio.

@WD0BCT Charlie ... it was a joke. You know ... a type of "envy", and all that.

I'm from NY. We're all wiseguys.

 

Oh I got the envy joke. I was just relating to the time I was raising a family and working full time. A big antenna or amp certainly appealed to me at the time (a good part of which was in Upstate NY). I could not justify either given the cost or my limited operating time even though I had plenty of real estate and no close by neighbors.

Now I'm retired with plenty of time and better disposable income but I'm living in an upscale duplex with a rigid HOA. So I'm playing with a stealth antenna and hoping my 100W doesn't bother any of my neighbors!

My wife and I are fearing our next move which more than likely will be to a senior citizen community. We are not ready to be inmates...but suspect it is in our future. Radio might not be allowed at all unless we find one with a residential ham club. They do exist...but not at every residential center. With an organized club they might get a decent roof mount antenna....and possibly...an amp!

 

I do not mind power if the audio is clean. There are days when I am grateful the other person turns on their amp. Some of the iffy signals I know of are the people are operator and not their amp. For some reason these people will have mic gain and compression set just right for their voice, equipment and environment but the moment the amp gets turned on they turn up the mic past the point where distortion is audible. The bad audio is not the amps fault.

When I started reading this thread I had not realised it was old. The topic is current.