aroylance

that should work. just seems like there is an issue with the base setup

What feed line are you using? in my little experience feed line is a big killer on UHF stuff. I can push over 15 miles on 5 watts with no issues but i am not trying to push through Florida vegitation. If you can hit it with your car and not the base i would think vegitation is not the issue. i would look at your coax size and your lightning arrestor. if the arrestor has failed it would not let much go through it. i think the common denominator is the base unit set up. i would buy an antenna and tune it for the GMRS band for the best results but unless there is a issues withs Ed's antenna it should get you eight miles pretty reliably. you have tried 2 differnt antennas without much differance so most likely something else in the set up. Just my .02