WRMN374

As soon as you go to the link to locate your antenna. Drag the antenna in the center of the map to your location. Then zoom in closer, and drag the antenna closer to your location. MichaelLAX posted the maps which really helped.
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Close by he could as he explains. More RF less desense. Thats normal. But now get in fringe area and no workie. With no test equipment its hard to say. I have tested repeaters for desense and seen 0 to 40 db desense. All depends on frequencies, duplexers, tuning and equipment. 
@WRMN374 If your antenna and repeater are both inside your not going to talk much further than you will on a single radio. What is your expectation that you want to accomplish ? You need to determine what you want to accomplish then design it to cover that. Take all the repeater stuff apart and use simplex to an antenna to your friends. Until you can reach them with a single antenna and single radio a repeater isn't going to work. I would venture to guess a mile is a good shot from inside the house with a handheld in the field. 
There are tons of threads on this site to search for information. 

Well that's your issue. You need a true base station antenna and feedline if you expect more than a couple miles. A laird FG4503 or 4507 would be ideal with some good feedline. 

There’s no doubt that a “true base station antenna and feedline” is better for a full time repeater, but I wouldn’t be so quick to declare “Well, that’s your issue.”
The losses through 10 feet of LMR400 aren’t enough to cause this problem and a decent mobile antenna can be expected to transmit and receive just as far on a repeater as they do on a mobile radio. 
The O.P. really needs to rule out other things before investing money in hardline and a Laird antenna.  He might spend quite a bit of money trying to build your concept of a repeater, only to find that his friends have a wrong setting somewhere. He already said this is a test setup; let’s help him get as much out of the test as possible before sending him back to the store. 
@WRMN374 Are your friends able to communicate when they get closer? Can you loan them your handheld radios and have them see how far away they can get before they no longer make contact?  If it’s just a matter of range, then @gortex2 may be correct, that it’s a matter of not getting enough signal out, but if that is the case they should have no problem hearing you when they’re closer.
Let’s take the repeater configuration out of the picture for just a second. If you clear the tones and use a simplex frequency can you contact your friends using one KG1000 as a mobile/base station from your location? I would make sure that you can do that before adding the complexity of a repeater.  
Where is your antenna and cookie sheet located?  Is it up on the roof or on a mast outside or do you have it in the house?
Notarubicon (@OffRoaderX) recently released a really good video that illustrates the value of a good antenna compared to adding more power that you might find interesting.

I realize there's more involved than just plugging in cables. The SWR meter is 1.01, and 36.44 watts. The duplexer is an XLT, and the wires from the radios are LMR-400. The small gmrs antenna is a test. My friends are 8-10 miles away, and I'm on top of a hill.

There is an easy way to fix this: Turn the knob to a different channel.

I didn’t make it very clearly.
My point is that 90% of the GMRS users with whom I’m personally acquainted use it simply as a communications medium when they’re many miles away from civilization.  They don’t know about or care about repeaters; they’re using simplex in the 462 MHz frequencies. They use it because cell phones don’t work where they’re recreating. For them it’s not a hobby or a vocation.  It’s simply a tool that enhances, and in some ways enables, the enjoyment of their hobbies.
For most of them the Garmin Rino is the only GMRS radio they’ve ever owned.  They chose GMRS strictly because of the ability to see where the others are and to mark locations to share with each other.
I cannot disagree with you about why we should be licensed, but the fact is that most outdoor recreational GMRS users never will unless they get deeper into it like those of us on this forum.
We on this forum are not an example of the average outdoor recreation user of GMRS and probably never will be.

How will passing the ham test make the GMRS Pro useful?

Here’s the regulations regarding frequencies. Note that repeaters are only permitted to transmit in the “a) 462 MHz Main Channels”:
a) 462 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, repeater, base and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 462.5500, 462.5750, 462.6000, 462.6250, 462.6500, 462.6750, 462.7000, and 462.7250 MHz. 
(b) 462 MHz interstitial channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable and base stations may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 462.5625, 462.5875, 462.6125, 462.6375, 462.6625, 462.6875, and 462.7125 MHz. 
(c) 467 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, control and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. Mobile, hand-held portable and control stations may transmit on these channels only when communicating through a repeater station or making brief test transmissions in accordance with § 95.319(c). The channel center frequencies are: 467.5500, 467.5750, 467.6000, 467.6250, 467.6500, 467.6750, 467.7000, and 467.7250 MHz. 
(d) 467 MHz interstitial channels. Only hand-held portable units may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5625, 467.5875, 467.6125, 467.6375, 467.6625, 467.6875, and 467.7125 MHz.

I never thought about using Fixed Stations to connect two different Repeaters.  If that's correct (I don't recall anything in the regulations that prohibits it) then you might as well use full duplex.  Fixed Stations may transmit on both 462 MHz main channels and 467 MHz main channels, thus they could communicate in full-duplex. They are limited to lower power, but that helps with the technical challenges anyway, as you pointed out. The technical challenges you mention are the biggest challenges.
[Repeater] <--- wired connection ---> [Fixed Station] ((((((RF)))))) [Fixed Station] <--- wired connection ---> [Repeater]

That's @MichaelLAXto YOU! 

I am having the same problem, did you get an answer?

As soon as you go to the link to locate your antenna. Drag the antenna in the center of the map to your location. Then zoom in closer, and drag the antenna closer to your location. MichaelLAX posted the maps which really helped.
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If you are using a UV-5G, you dont need to use the offset.
Step by step:
Go to a channel that says REPTR and an number.
Press "Menu", Press the Up arrow until you get to "T-DCS" or "T-CTCS" Press "Menu"
Use the Up or Down arrow until you find the number that corresponds to the tone e.g. 141.3 or 156.7 etc
Press "Menu"
Now do the same thing for "R-DCS" or "R-CTCS"
Press "ecs" and key up

The NotaR never posted a video telling you to manually enter a +5Mhz offset on the UV-5G...
Source: I've watched all NotARubicon videos.. Even the old ones.
@Borage257 is correct: Select correct repeater channel, enter tone, done..

On the uv5g you just go to the channel of the repeater you want to hit. Then you go to the menu, T-dcs or t-CTCS enter the menu and select what ever tone is desired. or use chirp

I figured it out. I made it harder than it needed to be. I followed MichaelLAX's diagram. You drag the antenna from continental map, and don't zoom into location first. Thanks everyone.

I followed MichaelLAX's diagram. You drag the antenna from continental map, and don't zoom into location first.

I have added a repeater and I still can't get the "GMRS antenna" icon to move to the repeater's location on the map.  It placed itself about 30 miles north of my listed repeater, Warren 550, in Warren, MI., when I listed it.   WRUY699.

Have you tried it from a different web-browser or different computer?

Build it and they will com. ?

Now all I need is a Repeater! ?

Same problem. There is no "icon" visible anywhere that can be dragged. 

List it now; I list repeaters months before they even go online just so there's a chance for someone to let me know if I'm sitting it on an occupied frequency.
 

That’s my thought as well. If you’ve never put up a repeater, don’t list it prematurely; you don’t know what you don’t know. If you have done a half dozen successfully, go ahead and list it.