Well, I wonder would it be okay to drive a full 4 watts power into my 200 watt amp? A lot of people say to run no more than half-power (2 watts) into any solid-state linear.

I hooked up to my grandpa's old Palomar 500 SWR/Watt meter (I sort of took guardianship of all his old radio equipment when he died-- and he had PLENTY of it! He was big into base stations and CB repair when he was younger. Even found his old FCC license from way back authorizing him to use citizens' band.) The SWR meter shows that my Radio Shack TRC-484 has a deadkey of about 0.75 of a watt.

I suspect the meter is messed up, though, because when I follow the instructions to calibrate the SWR meter and then test my SWR, the needle goes off the chart to the high side. I've been talking on this radio for at least four years now and according to a driver I hollered at today, it still sounds alright-- shouldn't be anything wrong inside the radio, if that's the case. So I think it's probably time to get another SWR meter before I hook up the amp.

Anyone else have recommendations on how they got big "awwwdeeeyo" out of their mobile rig?