Run the numbers on a few real stations and the result is the opposite of what most people expect. A kilowatt into a beam with a neighbor sixty feet away comes in exempt. A five watt handheld pressed against your cheek is the one that goes over the limit.
Why the small radio is the problem
Exposure falls off with the square of distance. Sixty feet of separation does an enormous amount of work; two inches does almost none. The handheld wins on power and loses far more on distance.
But the honest answer is not a number
At an inch or two from a 2 meter antenna you are deep inside the near field — closer than about 1.07 ft — where the plane-wave estimate everyone uses does not describe reality at all. A radio used within about eight inches of the body is what the FCC calls a portable device, and it is evaluated by SAR: laboratory testing the manufacturer does, not arithmetic you can do at the kitchen table.
What actually helps
- Keep the antenna away from your head. A few inches is worth more than any power setting.
- Use a speaker mic so the radio sits on your belt instead of at your face.
- Do not transmit at high power with the antenna touching you.
- On a mobile or base setup, the distance question comes back and the tables are worth reading.
Work out your own station in Exposure Forge — six questions, and it prints a dated record you can keep.