Anyone have experience with radio frequencies?

[Cell]

I am currently programing my own radio to work. I got most of it to work but my transmit output volume is low.

Can this be attributed to the transmit power being set to high, at 4w, and also being within a few miles of a repeater tower?

I am asking because I cannot seem to figure out the side effects of the power output from 4w to 1w.

Currently I have it set up high power (4w) and when I transmit, the other person cannot hear me loud enough.

I have tried everything and even drilling the microphone hole bigger to try and get my radio to transmit louder.

I currently broke the microphone on my radio and cannot test this theory out until the second radio I ordered comes in.

I currently have a baofeng uv-5r.

Any one that knows this stuff, I would appreciate the help. Thanks