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Incandescent :)

It was FT8, which is a weak signal data mode. Very often you can make contacts hundreds of miles away using less than 20 watts.

However, I was probably using between 40-100 watts for that contact - you can't get much further apart on earth than we were!

I've done both. If you and your remote station have good antennas, a low local noise floor, and the right atmospheric conditions, a little power can take you to the other side of the planet.

Probably the former but possibly the latter. Sometimes "conditions" are such that a tiny amount of power will go a very long way. Right now, near the peak of the solar cycle, 4 watt CB radios are sometimes heard thousands of miles away.

It might be possible those CBs heard that far away are actually 4 watts - but it's much more likely they're illegally boosting their output.

Still, you're totally right that in ideal conditions propagation can be astounding.

I regularly contact Europe from the Chicago area with a very modest antenna using five watts