cowboypilot

I did up a python script that will take a chirp csv export and merge it with a Retevis CPS export that you can then open in the Retevis software and load into the radio. Until Chirp figures out how to support it this has helped me quite a bit. I developed this on an unlocked radio but it very well may work on the other modes. It just strips the header and encodes the CSV into the retevis format. ChirpImport v1.0.py

Here's an intermediate step that will hopefully help. It's for the RA25, unsure if it will work on the other models. It requires two files to be in the directory it is run in, settings.dat and channels.csv settings.dat is a file you generate from the stock RA-25 software. You should set up the radio settings how you want them like the start up message, memory channels that open by default, etc. Basically everything on the left side except for the CH menu. Those settings are all saved into the header of the data file. channels.csv is a chirp CSV. It should trim the channel names to 8 characters and the total channels to 500 (As well as ignoring any channels over 500) but that hasn't been tested extensively. The script counts how many channels are in the file, then searches the header for a flag that indicates where the total channel number is stored and updates that. After that it skips to the beginning of the channel section and truncates there. The CSV is ingested to translate chirp data to the correct byte sequence for the radio (everything I've doped out so far is included at the bottom of the script in a CSV blob) and then added to the header and saved as an RA25 Data file called RA25-Import.dat I've tried it with a few of the different model options and it seems to be working across models too so I'm thinking that must also live in the header and not really change how the radio interprets channels, just limits what you can do. I'm not a python programmer, I'm sure the code is ugly as can be. Feel free to make it better/less-sucky. Oh also, if you haven't already noticed the stock software has a bug where after you open a data file it will not write any radio settings that you haven't opened a dialog for. In other words, if you open a data file you need to click on the "Function Setup" and "Information of Scanning" to actually get that stuff to load into memory before sending to your radio or it doesn't send. That's how mine has always worked, this software is terrible. ChirpImport v1.0.py

It depends on the type of equipment you have. I grabbed one of these for my RT-97, built a little custom cable with DB-9s on both ends and some cat5 to make the pinouts match up and it works like a champ. https://www.repeater-builder.com/products/usb-rim-lite.html