Comment Re:When there is financial incentive (Score 1) 84
Actually, you can legally have up to 1 watt (30 dBm) output into an antenna such that the gain doesn't cause your EIRP to exceed 4 watts (36 dBm). If you're output is lower, your gain on your antenna can be higher (i.e. high powered directional).
Now, if you want to operate illegally and say pump 1 watt into a 26 dBm gain directional antenna, you certainly can and will only face an issue if and only if the FCC is called to investigate strange interference issues or if you get real stupid and do something that would cause physical harm to someone. Odds of the FCC being called? Pretty small.
You can get a high output radio and put it into a high gain antenna and achieve impressive distance on P2P links. Try 25+ miles provided the right conditions -- i.e. if the two ends of the link are up high enough in the air. Heck, if one end of your link is high enough in the air (like on a mountain top) you could go 50 or 100 miles provided that the Fresnel zone was clear enough.