CHIRP

I pulled down a copy of the programming software from a third party because Retevis removed it from their website - http://mvrn.org/configuring-the-radio/

I wrote to my test radio and then I was able to read the reset channel list using CHiRP. I think there's something wrong with how these radios were programmed before (not related to CHiRP).

CHiRP still can't turn a repeater channel into a non-repeater channel (by setting duplex and offset), a non-repeater channel into a repeater channel, nor change frequencies to other GMRS channels. Is there a way I can figure out what the restrictions are and why they exist?

Sorry, I neglected to say that my radios are now programmed. I exported the list to CSV, edited the CSV, then imported the CSV on top of the channels and can set everything how I want it. Not sure why CHiRP won't let me do this in the UI, but at least there's a workaround.

If you feel everything is operating as expected, close this issue. Otherwise, I would be happy to provide any additional information you would want.

Tyler Akins wrote:

I pulled down a copy of the programming software from a third party because Retevis removed it from their website - http://mvrn.org/configuring-the-radio/

I wrote to my test radio and then I was able to read the reset channel list using CHiRP. I think there's something wrong with how these radios were programmed before (not related to CHiRP).

CHiRP still can't turn a repeater channel into a non-repeater channel (by setting duplex and offset), a non-repeater channel into a repeater channel, nor change frequencies to other GMRS channels. Is there a way I can figure out what the restrictions are and why they exist?

Hi Tyler,

Why is it that your screen capture is only showing 16 channels? The radio and the CHRIP driver supports 99 channels. The RB27 (GMRS model) has 30 channels programmed from the factory with channels 23-30 set as repeater channels and 69 channels available for programming. Your screen capture shouldn't stop at 16. Even if you loaded an RB27B image (FRS model) there would be 22 programmed channels and and additional 77 available (but none would be available for programming repeaters).

It is almost as if you downloaded from your radio using the RB627B selection (PMR model) which only supports 16 channels.

For the fun of it, I even fired up a Linux machine net yet running the latest flatpak CHIRP, updated CHIRP to the latest CHIRP and then loaded the "factory" RB27 image. It displays all 99 channels with the 30 programming GMRS channels including the 8 repeater channels. I then entered 462.550000 into the next available memory row, changed Duplex to "+" and set Offset to "5.000000". It works fine.

Would you attach your CHIRP Radio Images (*.img) file to this issue so I can use it for testing?

Also, did you save an unedited "backup" image from your radio before editing with CHIRP (it is a good practice)? If you did, please attach it as well.

Jim KC9HI

You can't change the first 30 channels. They are the default 22 GMRS simplex channels + 8 GMRS repeater channels.

1-7: simplex only. You can change tones, bandwidth and power level.
8-14: simplex only. You can change tone only. Bandwidth is narrow only and power level is low only.
15-22: simplex only. You can change tones, bandwidth and power level.
23-30: repeater only. You can change tones, bandwidth and power level.

It is only channels 31-99 that you can free-form program in am combination of simplex/repeater channels.

This is exactly how the Retevis RT27 GMRS v1.5 programming software works. The first 30 channels are kept this way to be compatible with any other standard 30 channel GMRS radio on the market today.

CHIRP is working exactly as intended and expected.

So if you want to program this radio to match the channels of a 16 channel model, you would just program any 16 channels in the range of 31-99.

Jim KC9HI