BH3PTS
I was also thinking that the power density on SSB at a similar bandwidth should be significantly higher than FM (25 kHz FM / 3 kHz SSB), and this is indeed the case.
For example, the coverage range of the Jinan Yellow River amateur repeater (power unknown), and the international space station amateur repeater operating at 5W, can be directly received by handheld radios using their original antennas in the U-band. Of course, when receiving, it may be necessary to adjust the antenna direction or polarization.
Taking an ISS repeater with a 5W transmitter and 2 dBi antennas for both transmission and reception as an example, the transmitted power is:5W = 37 dBm, with a path loss of 133.3 dB over a distance of 400 km, the final power at the receiver (handheld) is approximately37 - 133 = -96 dBm。The FM mode sensitivity of most handheld radios is significantly higher than this value.