You aren't very bright - are you?
My dad has the best one liner in the business - " How Stupid Are You?"
Until you understand how communications works, and how your signal radiates - you will never get how it all goes together.
First off the radio.
I take it you are not talking about a LEGAL 3 Watt AM cb radio / or even a LEGAL 12 Watt PEP SSB radio.
Those days are over.
All of the quality has left the building with Elvis when Browning, Courier, Tram etc went out of business.
The only thing left is what they call the " IMPORT " radio's.
You know the ones, Galaxy, Ranger, Connex - that were designed to be used in the 10 / 12 meter portion of the amateur radio band, which are easily modified - AKA " ILLEGAL " for use in the Citizens Band portion of the bands.
The word ILLEGAL seems to make some sort of connotation of it being better.
Like if my radio puts out 5 watts and your radio puts out 50 watts - you are going to be able to talk over my signal.
Or if the factory stock Ranger 2950 puts out 25 watts AM, that if someone tweeks and tunes it and makes it put out 30 watts that it is going to be better then the 25 watt radio.
" HOW STUPID ARE YOU?"
All signals reduce at the square of the distance away!
All effective communications is line of sight!
In order to move the needle one S unit between S -1 and S -9 you need a Db gain in power received.
6 DB gain equals a 400 % increase in power.
5 watt box stock radio vs 25 watt Ranger radio.
5 x 1 = 5
5 x 2 = 10
10 x 2 = 20
20 x 2 = 40
You have a Wilson 5000 antenna on a Suburban - 20 miles away.
I have a Wilson 5000 Antenna on a Suburban - 20 miles away.
A third person has a identical Wilson 5000 on a Suburban. - stationary.
Your signal to the third party is S- 8
My signal to the third party is S - 7
Who is louder?
Can you hear the difference between a 5-7 and a 5-8 signal report?
NO!
Now to move the S meter one more S unit in the range of 1 - 9 - how much more power do we need?
40 x 1 = 40
40 x 2 = 80
80 x 2 = 160
160 x 2 = 320 watts
The difference between a 5 watt radio and a 100 watt radio is about 16 Db or about 2 1/2 S units to the third party radio.
Now - the greatest gains to be had between a 5 watt legal radio and what ever you could install in a mobile application is about 350 watts legal power.
Why?
Because to move the needle another S unit - you would need to increase the power another 6 db and that would cost you a significant amount of money.
320 x 1 = 320
320 x 2 = 640
640 x 2 = 1280
1280 x 2 = 2560 watts of power.
In order to generate enough electric to run the 2500 watt amplifier, you would need a 500 amp alternator and several 1000 cca batteries - mobile.
Now - in order to move the needle beyond 10 / S-9 1 S unit, you need to increase transmit power 100 times.
So if you were 10 / S- 9 with 100 watts and you wanted to move the needle one S unit, you would need 1000 watts of transmit power.
If you wanted to increase your transmit power to 30 / S -9 into the same radio, you would need 10,000 watts of transmit power.
By that time, you would have graduated from alternators and car batteries and moved up to a 15 KW generator and a trailer to haul it on.
Because people are so stupid and uneducated, they do not realize that all transmitting is the same. The only thing that changes is the way you transmit - the frequency, the length of the antenna, the height of the antenna above ground, the soil conductivity of the ground beneath the antenna, what kind of ground plane you use etc...
Amateur radio people and employed electrical engineers can easily take advantage of any stupid person that walks into a CB shop and wants to buy a ILLEGAL CB radio. It is so easy even a cub scout can do it.
You take a simple SWR meter and turn it on to the power and you measure the average power transmitted.
You then " " tweek and tune the radio and put the meter on Peak instead of average RMS power and whistle in the mic. The meter will show a increase of about 50%
Lets say power RMS equals .707 of the peak
A 120 vac electrical outlet actually puts out 170 volts or 340 volts peak to peak.
The RMS is measured in any AC current by using a known resistor and how much power it takes to produce a certain amount of heat.
You don't know this - because no one has taught you this.
All you know is that your wall outlet is rated at 120 VAC - because that is what you have been told and because when you measure it with your VOM it reads 120 VAC.
http://www.ultracad.com/articles/rms.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square
This is the reason why anyone can talk on the CB radio, and why no license is required to operate, or any knowledge of how it works.
This is also the reason why everyone who legally acquires a amateur radio license has to learn this stuff before they are given a license.
The CB mentality does not kick in until after the person has been granted a license and finds that their dipole antenna does not work and they want to " " Talk over every one else.
The amplifier people accommodates them accordingly.
Mr X in Kansas is using 100 watts on 28 mhz and Mr Y in Georgia wants to talk over him, so Mr Y goes out and buys a 1000 watt linear amplifier.
Only Mr X in Kansas has a 16 DB gain beam antenna and Mr Y does not.
Who is louder?
Do the math!