You are correct there is no repeater in the area where I am at right now, also did an experiment with a second radio last night with the frequencies listed above if I transmit on FRS 1 and the second radio is listening on the repeater channel 18 there is no response on the repeater channel. Then I reversed both hand held radios with the same result so all is well with my equipment. I suspect one of the trail bike families in the area is using a ham hand held radio instead of a GMRS radio and they are programmed wrong!
Yes and only eight of the 30 (23 to 30) (this is hard coded into the units) are set up to talk to a repeater. Go to BTech.com and look at the specs for each radio and take that information literally! Not the same as a Ham handheld radio!!!
Mikeam's post in FRS frequency being transmitted on Repeater channel? was marked as the answer