I frankly don't care how much power a station is running as long as they 
have a clean signal and they aren't 6 KHz wide or splattering further.  The 
problem is, of course, the higher the power, the greater the chances of 
disturbing your neighbor's radio, TV, and a whole bunch of other related 
electronic devices.  I ran 700 watts output for years until a friend called 
me who wanted to cell his SB220 amplifier.  I had been running an old Heath 
Kit Warrior, 4 811A tubes with a solid state power supply and a few other 
small modifications, and getting, as I said, 700 watts output.  I ran this 
amp in 3 different homes and never got any complaints.  I know the ham who 
built my blind friends SB220 and at the time, he wanted just 300 dollars for 
it.  He likely had under 100 hours of use and one tube was brand new.  I got 
1200 watts out of it on 20 meters.  One day, a neighbor, two doors down, 
called me and asked if I was using my ham radio.  I just had a friends, a 
bunch of friends actually, put up a 2 element 40 meter beam you've heard me 
mention a hundred times before already.  Anyhow, I asked the neighbor, what 
time he was referring to.  The guy as a known drunk, my kids played with his 
kids, and he was also a pot head.  I don't mind that, in fact, I voted last 
year for marijuana to be made legal in Colorado.  We already had medical 
marijuana legalized by a doctor's prescription but this was for personal 
consumption but it cannot be smoked any place, not even in your own back 
yard, publicly.  That's dumb but I guess they think they have to draw the 
line somewhere.  You sure don't want them pot heads taking over the world. 
Anyhow, this guy said specifically I was using my radio at 10:30 in the 
morning.  I never was on at that time of day because I was baby sitting my 
little grandsons who weren't in school at the time so I was off the air from 
like 8 in the morning till 5 in the evening and I told him so.  He said he 
knew I was causing the interference because there was no one else in the 
neighborhood with a tower and antennas.  I explained to him again why I was 
never on the air at that time and then I proceeded to ask him just how he 
knew it was 10:30 in the morning my radio was screwing up his TV.  He said, 
"Because my favorite cartoon comes on right at that time."  God as my 
witness and my hand on the Bible, that is what he said.  I called the local 
Denver FCC office and asked for two free copies of their TVI and RFI 
booklets which tells people how to remove radio interference from their TV 
and other electronic home devices because the guy at the FCC office said 
they don't have time to come out and check a ham's station any more due to 
the lack of man power and fewer employees.  He said the booklets were 
especially written in layman's terms because it explained it was the 
neighbor's problem to fix and not the FCC licenced amateur radio operator's. 
I gave the guy one copy and kept the other in my drawer just in case someone 
else complained.  I never got any other complaints.  I'd personally run 5K 
input, or output for that matter, if it weren't for the problems it causes 
with neighbors.  I can remember when 1K input was the legal limit. or about 
600 watts output.

Phil.
K0NX