Well, there could be a couple of reasons…
Hmm, I’ll just transmit more power that will fix it right? No, probably not, in fact you might damage your equipment. There are a few things you need to check before you “turn the knob to 11”.
How far away are you from the repeater or other end of the communications link?
Are you within Line-of-Site to the Antenna your trying to reach? Line-of-Site is something to consider because if you are too far away or if you have too many obstacles between you and the receiving station. Then you are unlikely to establish good clear communications. If you are within line-of-site, but just barely, then you might want to consider using a high gain antenna. You need to think about the losses between your transmitter and your antenna. Do you have a “constipated” connection to your antenna?
In other words, do you have good quality cable, and few to 0 adapter between your transmitter and antenna? Cable loss and losses due to adapters are things you need to consider.
Is your antenna resonate?
Resonance refers to how well does the impedance of your antenna match the impudence of your transmitter. Ideally you want a 1:1 match. This means that your getting nearly all your transmit power radiated out the antenna, vs having some of it reflect back into the radio, or just hang out in the antenna (this is the standing wave part of SWR). You want your SWR to be as close to 1 as possible. IMO, you need to be picky and precise. You ever head the expression measure with a micrometer and cut with a chainsaw. Well, that is not what we want to do. We want to measure with a micrometer and cut with a scalpel.
Yes you can get out with an SWR that is just below 2:1. But you can’t complain later that I just didn’t get that many contacts. So, I guess I’ll need to upgrade my radio. If you are going to spend $1000 on a radio you should not complain about spending a few hundred more for a good antenna and good cables and a balun, and a way to measure said antenna for SWR. I mentioned a balun, and that could be an entire blog or blog series. But to summarize a balun can be used to help prevent current from coming back down your transmission line/cable and back into your radio. And lastly you might consider using ferrite beads on cables like your microphone cable, usb cables, etc… They are kinda like electromagnetic suckers that suck up stay electromagnetic energy (RF) that might be running up and down your cables looking for a way out.
Are you speaking into the microphone correctly?
This one is often overlooked. If you are using the Mic that comes with the radio, then you should be turning the Mic slightly sideway and speaking across it, not directly at it. You don’t need to yell or speak really loudly. If you do that you might over-modulate and distort your signal.
To summarize, power is likely not why your signal report is bad. Its probably the last thing you need to check, not the first. 73.