On Wed, 9 May 2012, Dan Smith wrote:
The consensus seems to be that 1 watt is the ideal level to push it to. What could happen if I push it any more?
I imagine that the simplest answer is that you're turning up the gain to try to get more power out, and thus closer to the potential thermal overload point. I expect that any overhead they have in the thermal domain is not utilized because they wouldn't pass FCC type certification due to distortion or other noise products. Obviously if the hardware could do it without burning up or distorting the output, they would have set that as the default. Since their only competitor on 220 is a full five-watt handheld from Kenwood, I can't imagine they limited the output for anything other than a Good Reason(tm) :)
I guess the solution then is to get a Kenwood. But I can't afford that yet and I'm starting to have a thing for Yaesu stuff. I wish they'd be more serious about 220.