noob question - increasing range

hey guys

I’m actually looking to try find a solution for our community security radio program. Basically, each suburb in the town (sector) has its own channel. Each household in the sector uses (mainly) karisun PT446 to communicate with each other. Now the problem comes in where some of the suburbs are a little bigger than others and the signal does not go through clearly. Opposite ends is quite poor. I’m guessing this has something to do with the fact that we’re using 0.5w?
So my question is, can these radios operate at 5w? Will that solve our problem, will it improve the range? If they can, is it just a software upgrade/update? Or what else would we need to do to sort our problem out cost effectively aka as cheaply as possible?

Sorry if this is a really stupid question. The guys who set this up didnt expect it to take off like it has and now we’re a little stuck.

Thanks

500mW is all you can get out of those units.

You should look into upgrading, possibly including bases stations with external antennas that can place at a higher elevation.

Kirisun looks like a cheap Chinese brand.
You should look into something better, like Motorola, Kenwood, Thales, Maxon or Icom.

I believe kirisun is rebranded kenwood.
Thanks for he advice avguy