SteveShannon

Often you can tell whether a transmission came from a repeater because repeaters stay open for a brief time. 
You leave the receiver tone off until you know your transmissions are getting into the repeater. That way you’re only fighting one problem at a time. 

Wait a second.
The output tone for a repeater is the receive tone for your radio and honestly you should probably leave it out at first. 
The Input tone for the repeater is the transmit tone for a radio trying to use the repeater. 

Good job!  

Download and read the manual for the Bridgecom repeater to see how easy it is to change channels. Do the channels on the receiver side change when you change the channel on the transmitter side?  I suspect the repeater will be inconvenient to use as a base station.
I think you’re right that the duplexer will limit you to the channel pair it’s tuned to, which will severely attenuate reception on the simplex channels.
I would simply get a cheap (but generally liked) mobile radio like the db20g and connect it directly to the antenna when you want to have a base station. 
 
 
 
 

Get the two radios more than 50 feet apart, and try again.

I rarely use the receive tone because anyone with functioning ears and an IQ above 80 can very easily determine if someone is talking on the repeater or on simplex. 

Just program your radio the way that you choose in the first place.

Wait a second.
The output tone for a repeater is the receive tone for your radio and honestly you should probably leave it out at first. 
The Input tone for the repeater is the transmit tone for a radio trying to use the repeater. 

Actually, @MarkInTampa asked if you were using the correct port on the radio six minutes after you first posted your question. 

Yup, I use one as my main base antenna. Also have a copper tube j-pole on top of the same mast. I have not noticed much reduction in reception in the null directions and to the rear as compared to the omni j-pole. Mine is the Arrow Antenna 7 element. Very nicely built. I'm on top of a 500 foot hill and most of the traffic I want to hear is within about a 30 degree arc so the Yagi is well suited for my application. I have tried rotating it but seems to make little difference. I pick stuff from all over the Puget Sound. I live in the San Juan Islands WA. I was listening to some mountain climbers this morning up on Mt Baker. They were on channel 7 simplex. That is about 60 miles from me and the Yagi is not even pointed in that direction. Seattle area repeaters come in loud and clear.

There are all varieties of use cases for antennas. Yes that Comet 712 is a prime antenna. It's also a massive beast! It's an 11 foot tall vertical. Some people might not be able, or want to have such a prominent antenna. There's also the matter of needing very robust mounting for it, wind load, etc..
A UHF yagi on the other hand, is a small and light thing that can squirt the RF just as far and as strong with equivalent decibels, just only in the desired direction at the time. And it's the size footprint as a shoe box. If you don't mind going and pointing it at the repeaters or direction of receiving party, I think it IS an option for some to consider, again, if they might not be able to mount up a big ole 11 foot tall monster antenna.
In my case, I've already got other antennas for other bands and I was able to side-mount this one onto an existing mast in a way that it can swivel. I just take the parallel run of PVC pictured and give it a twist.  It's super simple to construct something like this, I don't sweat a wind load on it, and it'll get into a repeater 30+ miles out as good if not better than a 712 if I've got it pointed at it. They're also excellent on the RX side of things.

I completely understand the logic of “it can do 50 watts, and it can do lower power as well” so why not?
My question though, even with that being said, when would 50 watts on 462-467 be appropriate? When does 50 watts do a thing that 25 watts (or even less) didn’t? I’m not saying that there aren’t such circumstances, but speaking strictly anecdotally, I’ve never found an instance of it. The the limiting variables of the 4xx UHF band properties are going to be your barriers well before needing more power will. 
 
So when you’re setup with one of those 50 watt installs, I’m assuming you’re also going to have the supporting accoutrement to be able to supply that radio at maximum power level, even if you may opt to mainly run it lower.. But you’re geared up to be able to. So that was a cost.. 
Also, I’m just going to be straightforward. As far as what you said about using only the power needed to accomplish what you’re doing. I really don’t believe that’s standard practice. I’d bet everything that most people are just going full bore on high all day. 
 
All that the point of this post was attempting to get across is that I believe that there’s a great deal of GMRSers that are all about that 50 watt model. And I believe they run them that way, all day. And I don’t think very many people realize how much power draw they’re using all the time, for no practical benefit.. 

Actually, @MarkInTampa asked if you were using the correct port on the radio six minutes after you first posted your question. 

Are you connected to the right port for programming? The programming port is the same connector size as the microphone plug but on the SIDE of the radio, not on front.

As you are facing the radio, which side of the radio are you plugging the RJ-45 jack? if you are plugging it into the left side securely (the side closest to the power button), then the only thing I can think of is,,, the RJ-45 jack termination is defective.
Keep in mind, with or without the RJ-45 connection being made to the radio, Windows Device Manager will still recognize the Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge while it is connected to the PC's USB port. I just did that on my radio. read the radio, and then got the error message "Failed connection ! Please check if powered on or well connected to the com port!"

Many radios have the ability to monitor two channels. Those are the two. 

Completely different frequencies and propagation effects, but GMRSers might be suprised to learn on HF (short wave) some hams get lucky and bounce signals all the way around the world with 10 to 20 watts.  Back to relevant bands and frequecies, you can communicate with the ISS with a regular 50 watt VHF or UHF transceiver.  Using a Baofeng HT I have listened in on hams using the ISS repeater to make contacts with other hams.  Knowing the antenna polarization and sweeping thru the frequencies made it better as did waiting for a high overhead pass. 
It is about the antenna and knowing what to do with it 

@WSAK691 I want to touch on the EmComm stuff a bit. 
 
I have a 50w UHF station, a 110w UHF station, 50w VHF station, three 50w VHF/UHF repeaters, a 300w VHF station, and a 100w HF station. I have solar and batteries delivering enough power to run at 100w with a 50% duty cycle, 24 hours a day for the life of the batteries (translate to many years). And the reality is, in a real emergency, which I have worked many, I promise you are not going to be anywhere near 50% duty cycle. 
 
All of my stations drop to 5w, except my HF radio which will go to 0.4w. Even with no batteries, I can run any one of my radios on low power and pure solar for peak direct light hours. That can be 5 to 7 hours a day, depending on the time of year, weather, etc.
 
I mention all this to highlight the fact that just because a radio can produce 50w, 100w or more, that doesn't mean you have to run them that high all the time. In fact, the FCC rules and generally good practice for not causing interference, is to use the least amount of power required for reliable communications. I would rather have the power in case I need it, rather than not having the option. 
 
If you're going to spend the effort and money, there is very little cost or time difference when building a 40w power source and a 1,500w power source.

Here’s what the regulations say. It’s certainly not limited to families. People can use GMRS talk about many different things. There is a longer list of prohibited uses, but talking about radios isn’t in there.
95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses.
The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. 
 

Here’s what the regulations say. It’s certainly not limited to families. People can use GMRS talk about many different things. There is a longer list of prohibited uses, but talking about radios isn’t in there.
95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses.
The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. 
 

Here’s what the regulations say. It’s certainly not limited to families. People can use GMRS talk about many different things. There is a longer list of prohibited uses, but talking about radios isn’t in there.
95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses.
The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. 
 

I think there may be a misunderstanding of what GMRS is for - it's for any kind of conversation, not just intra-family communication.  The two operators having a discussion had just as much right to be talking on that frequency as your family.  Now, if your wife had emergency traffic, that's a completely different situation, but otherwise it's first come-first served.  It would have been considerate to allow your wife to break in, but not obligatory.  There is no requirement to limit the duration of a conversation on GMRS, only that a station must identify every 15 minutes.
 
Wow.

Seems to me “some people” have very strong opinions about how and what people can and can’t talk about on repeaters they don’t even own. This us vs them rhetoric is ridiculous. It’s just fn radios people, not the Middle East. You can turn the knob or oh wait if only there was a way to have private conversations with people we know without all the RF turf war tensions. Google it on your iPhone.😂 Go sports team go 😂. If I may interject some sarcasm of my own… Sad hams? Sad GMRSer or is it antihamite? Oh life is so horrible, why can’t I control how hams (AKA other licensed GMRS users) talk on repeaters that aren’t mine? Damn those sad hams! Damn appliance operators! Geezus! Funniest thread ever. 😂

IMHO a repeater should be used however the owner (the one that used private resources to set it up) allows it to be used.  A GMRS repeater is not a public utility, even "open" repeaters.  If the repeater owner does not like how it is being used then there are ways of limiting access.
If you want a channel where you can contact family (or who ever) then you may want to set up your own channel.  There are no private or secure frequencies on GMRS but cleaver use of channel selection and CTCSS/DCS filters can give you a discrete channel to use as you want.

5 minutes 😁
Actually, we hams tend to call each other by our call signs more often than our names. We often log those contacts.  If we’re having a net we check in and then wait to be called back. We say our call sign every 10 minutes or sooner and at the end of the conversation. 

When I use GMRS it’s strictly casual on a first name basis. I don’t care what the other person’s call sign is. I use mine at the end of every 15 minutes and when ending a conversation, but otherwise I just don’t say it. GMRS is like talking on the phone to someone except simplex. 

Yes.. Many repeater owners list their repeater then vanish.. Many also specify that it is an open repeater or that anyone can use it and dont bother replying..

If the tones are listed you can usually start using the repeater and ask for permission over the air, or just use it and wait until someone asks you to stop using it..