BAOFENG GMRS 9R 5watt vs. a 20watt radio for base station

[WSDU214]

I  am new to GMRS. I recently set up a GMRS antenna/using a BAOFENG GMRS 9R 5watt as the base station radio. I am able to hit the repeater of choice lout & clear at transmitting & receiving with this radio. But when I take my other GMRS 9R over a mile in the area of choice not getting reception. Is it because I am just using a 5watt ratio vs. a 20 watt with the antenna. Will the 20 watt reach me?

[Guest]

Is the other uv9 you are taking out in the field trying to hear the repeater or simplex?    Line of sight is everything.  What base antenna are you using at home?    How high is the base antenna?   A 5w ht with  good line of sight will do 10-20 or many more  miles.   While at the same time a 50w radio with bad line of sight may only be able to do 1 mile.  What type of area are you in?  Open country, city, trees, homes, buildings, hills?  

[JBRPong]

The repeater antenna is probably higher off the ground.  Line of sight is important.

[WRYZ926]

As mentioned already, line of sight is very important.  Hills and thick vegetation/trees will effect UHF frequencies.

Now with everything being equal, yes a 20 watt radio will get out farther than a 5 watt radio. You basically have to quadruple the power to notice a difference. I say usually since there are always exceptions. My refurbished KG-1000G died so I put my KG-XS20G in its place. There is one repeater that is 50 miles away that I can get into fine with the 50 watt radio but barely get into it with the 20 watt radio using the exact same antenna.

[WRWE456]

Here is another example of line of sight being most important. I live on a hilltop on an island in NW Washington. I can hit a large area repeater East of Seattle that is high on a mountain 92 miles from my location with a 5 watt Wouxun KG-935G plus hand held connected to a rooftop Yagi directional antenna. But I have almost perfect line of sight to that repeater save a few trees in my neighborhood. I have no doubt it would reach even further.