You did indicate that this is a Moteino from LowPower Labs right?
It is not something that you put together?
Feeling better. I was using a coiled antenna bought from China. Does it make a difference?
It is hard to say. A range of 40' sounds like the wrong type of antenna.
It is just that a wire of the correct length will work better than most other antennas.
You might change to the supplied antenna so that you can trouble-shoot from a better understood position.
Is there some setting in the default, where dictates the maximum power I can transmit?
Someone will need to confirm, I think that the default is max power.
I have not had the need to adjust any of the default settings because they work well for my needs.
I would suggest that you determine what is wrong before changing defaults.
There are a lot of things that can be changed, they interact and anything but the right combination will
not be an improvement.