I talked to Myles the 40 year repair veteran at AES.  I sent him the
article about increasing the power output on ssb for the ts480.
As he pointed out, PEP is very hard to actually measure, and the
output level as it is, keeps the radio amplifying liniarlly and
sounding as good as it does.  I didn't meter it, but think the
upgrade has increased the output a bit.  The radio is very clean and clear.
I hear that their is now a bracket to connect the head to the base if
you want, but haven't looked for it, since I can't imagine a reason
to want to do it.