I’m contemplating modding one of my Boafeng Bf888’s from 500mw down to 100mw just for the 70cms FM contests ( I don’t compete but use them just to make simplex contacts) also to use along with other radios for the 435alive events and for not so local repeaters, Should I risk losing My £8.20 for such an experiment ? I may need to bodge together sorry I mean build a longer Yagi !
Thanks for sending me down that rabbit hole today!
I also discovered this amazing antenna called a Zepp Balun for 40m? Looks like an antenna the size of a Bic pen lid, should be right up your street! 
You may and it is your right to lower power to 100mW. But, no need to exaggerate. 0,5W is very low power
It depends. It can often be very asymmetric with home-based chasers suffering high local QRM (as I do particularly on the lower HF bands) and who may appreciate your (slightly) higher power to hear you. By contrast, I usually get S0-S1 background noise as an activator so despite my ‘compromise’ portable antenna can usually hear those QRPp stations or weak long-haul dx ones pretty well.
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