"RST Engineering - JIm" wrote in message
...
Given the fact that a 1 watt transmitter on one end and a 1 microvolt
receiver on the other end have a maximum theoretical range of 1800 miles,
how in the world can you say that a 4 watt transmitter is "limited by
power output"?

The limitation is always by line of sight or antenna configuration.

Since all transceivers of this type are limited by the FCC in regards to how
much power they can output(and most of them develop the max power allowed at
about 1.5w nominal) and since all of them come with essentially identical
omnidirectional antennas, I can pretty much assume they will all have very
similar ranges, since obviously the transmitter is going to be the limiting
factor seeing as how the other end is putting out roughly 7db more power.

So you can use the opportunity to mentally masturbate your "engineering"
knowledge and talk about theoretical true parabolic reflectors and receiver
sensitivities that don't even approach practical applications, but you're
not really contributing much to the OP's question.