From right here, in my office in my home in the middle of a town, I can easily communicate via a 440 MHz repeater about eight miles away with a handheld radio (

From right here, in my office in my home in the middle of a town, I can easily communicate via a 440 MHz repeater about eight miles away with a handheld radio (with a little stubby antenna on it) that is putting out about one watt. You need to get much higher up in the spectrum before you have to worry about your signal not passing through walls. To illustrate, mobile phones typically operate in the 800-900 and/or 1800-1900 MHz range and typically put out ~0.6 watts. Most people have no problems whatsoever using their cell phones from inside their homes. 5 watts on 406 MHz out in the middle of an empty ocean is certainly more than enough to be picked up by a satellite passing overhead. Last, "entry-level ham radio operators" are permitted 1500 watts (on the frequency bands we're discussing; the limit is a very reasonable 100 watts on the lower/HF bands). (If you insist on "nitpicking", you should at least make sure you're accurate.)