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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My QMX occasionally has the odd wobble or two, so I’ve taken to packing the Titanium RockMite as an emergency rig.
On my last summit today I thought it would be fun to put the Titanium RockMite back on air again. From Seat Sandal G/LD-022 I was easily able to qualify the summit in a very short period of time.
73, Colin
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Brilliant work sir. Incidentally, @EA2DT POTA-hunted me at 13:30z, just 7 minutes before chasing you. I was running 100w 891/ATAS/Palm Pico with a flask of coffee and a biccie though so he probably had an easier time finding me! I reckon the biccie enhanced propogation. 
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Very satisfying to get them in quick succession like that especially with QRPp. I recognise almost all of those callsigns as very active SOTA chasers.
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I think operating style helps, as a chaser, would you invest time listening to several long, slow overs, whilst other chasing opportunities slip by, or would you favour investing your time listening to quick fire QSOs with a high throughput rate?
Personally I think that chasers get to know their prey - Roy G4SSH advocated learning the activator’s habits in order to be more successful. Chasers are probably more likely to chase an activator if they know they have a high probably of achieving a QSO with little time investment. I aim to get the Chaser’s call into my log as quickly as I can. Pleasantries can be followed up later by email, on the reflector etc. I will spend a little more time on friends, going back with a name if possible.
The point being that activating with low power is entirely viable, especially since Eric KU6J’s RBNgate idea and the subsequent development of RBNhole.
73, Colin
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Every activator probably strikes the balance differently between brevity and pleasantries. I would usually email the chaser only if there was a problem (e.g a phantom chaser claiming a non-existent QSO) or comment on the reflector only if there was something interesting of note.
So, I always squeeze in some brief pleasantries (e.g. gm/ga, tu, 73) - and their name if I remember it - which add little to the duration of the QSO. I think it’s useful for chasers – at least the ones who know you – to keep to the same QSO format every time (except for a slight variation for S2S QSOs) particularly on your final over so that waiting chasers know when to call you. For instance, I finish with “r 73 tu e e”. Most know the “e e” is their go-ahead.
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