0.5 watts of nothing but POWER

I made a contact last night using the K7DAV repeater located on Antelope Island. Started out on 2 watts, but stepped it down to 0.5 watts on my handheld radio using a mag mount on top of my roof, just to see if I could get through. K7JXY reported full quieting with 2 watts and only a little noise on 0.5 watts.