During my portable operations in Arizona, I used my ft-8900 with the Arrow II with 20 watts and was able to make contacts just fine Down to 10 degrees on low passes. All that it requires is some power and very importantly you have to flip polarity to get the best transmit signal and you need to know what freqency you start on and end on. For me it's 436.170 AOS, and 180-185 end of pass.