I just ordered a Retevis RA87, anyone run one?

[SvenMarbles]

I’m just curious if anyone here has an RA87 and have used it for a while, and what you might think of it. 

[Socalgmrs]

I want so badly to like retivis but EVERY person I know that has ever tried one ends up dumping them pretty fast.   The fit and feel seam ok but they seam to have many problems after a few weeks or months of use.  The price seams good but they don’t seam to last very long.    I hope this one works out for you.  Many people tell me my tyt radios don’t last but I abuse them every day in wet hot dusty snowy bumpy old trucks and they do fine and have done fine for a long while of hard use. So…

[SvenMarbles]

7 minutes ago, WRXP381 said:

I want so badly to like retivis but EVERY person I know that has ever tried one ends up dumping them pretty fast.   The fit and feel seam ok but they seam to have many problems after a few weeks or months of use.  The price seams good but they don’t seam to last very long.    I hope this one works out for you.  Many people tell me my tyt radios don’t last but I abuse them every day in wet hot dusty snowy bumpy old trucks and they do fine and have done fine for a long while of hard use. So…

We’ll see. I got it at a sale price. Mine would be indoors at a desk. 

[OffRoaderX]

35 minutes ago, WRXP381 said:

EVERY person I know that has ever tried one ends up dumping them pretty fast.

Based on all your multiple previous comments about how EVERY person you know dumps EVERY radio (Midland, Retevis, TidRadio, Wouxun) unless that radio happens to be the same brand of radios that you use, it is becoming clear that you don't actually know anyone.  

... Or, you are just F.O.S.

But either way, your mythomaniac comments are great for pointing at and laughing so keep up the good work!

[Davichko5650]

10 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

 

... Or, you are just F.O.S.

 

Don't know that abbreviation or acronym, please elucidate!

[SteveShannon]

14 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Don't know that abbreviation or acronym, please elucidate!

It must be a turkey cooking reference: full of stuffing. 

[Davichko5650]

3 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

It must be a turkey cooking reference: full of stuffing. 

It did dawn on me while reading your reply!  It's hell gettin' old.....

[yqtszhj]

Your cracking me up where I almost blew my coffee out of my nose! LOL

[WSAE814]

I have 4 of them. They are very good radios, very clean send and recieve,. Unfortunately they don't put out a full 40 watts. I took 2 of them and used them as a repeater thru a duplexer and they worked well. I had to use an id box with them. They had a slight delay over my vertex vxr-7000.

[SvenMarbles]

14 hours ago, WSAE814 said:

I have 4 of them. They are very good radios, very clean send and recieve,. Unfortunately they don't put out a full 40 watts. I took 2 of them and used them as a repeater thru a duplexer and they worked well. I had to use an id box with them. They had a slight delay over my vertex vxr-7000.

Mine makes 39.8 on the meter.

[CoffeeTime]

I installed a RA87 in the 4x4 this week -- but I am waiting for a Midland antenna to arrive.

Purchased directly from Retevis.

Unboxing: the RA87 unit, mic, power lead, and misc. supplies all look okay so far.        

 

**Note: My Retevis GMRS Mobile Package "deal, deal"  arrived with a 2-piece metal whip, with an NMO style base. It is a Dual-band antenna and is below the GMRS range-MA07  model 144.430MHz.   I must have missed that fact when ordering this package.  

Their site shows a fiberglass GMRS antenna (MR300) with restricted mounting locations.

I will save/use the dual-band MA-07 elsewhere and pass on the MR300.

I am ordering a  Midland MXTA26 GMRS antenna equipped with a spring base for better forgiveness during off-road forest tree limb whacking.

 

 

  

 

[dosw]

Looking forward to getting mine in a few days. It's been ordered.

 

I'll put the RA87 in my vehicle, and will demote the MXT275 currently in the vehicle to getting moved back and forth between a boat and an RV (since they're never used at the same time) as needed. I was able to check into a net 63 miles away yesterday using the MXT275, using an MXTA26 antenna, though not with strong quieting. This upgrade ought to help.

[WSAE814]

On 5/27/2024 at 10:43 AM, SvenMarbles said:

Mine makes 39.8 on the meter.

With 1:1 dummy load mine are putting out around 32 - 34 watts

[SvenMarbles]

35 minutes ago, WSAE814 said:

With 1:1 dummy load mine are putting out around 32 - 34 watts

1.01 on a perfectly impedance matched antenna.

[nokones]

On 5/20/2024 at 12:29 PM, SteveShannon said:

It must be a turkey cooking reference: full of stuffing. 

"Full of Smelly Stinky Stuff

[SvenMarbles]

12 minutes ago, nokones said:

"Full of Smelly Stinky Stuff

 

16 minutes ago, nokones said:

"Full of Smelly Stinky Stuff

Pipe down you two…

[dosw]

I was reading the CHIRP python code for the RA-87 and spotted a few interesting sections:

1: A listing of the actual (targeted) power level for each of the power settings (low, low2, low3, mid, high).

 POWER_LEVELS = [chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low", watts=5.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low2", watts=10.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low3", watts=15.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Mid", watts=20.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("High", watts=40.00)]

 

2: The programming indicates that the "left" and "right" side of the radio have rather independent memories. This is also described a bit in the manual. But to be a little clearer, the radio is marketed as having 200 memory slots for programming, and while this is correct, 100 of them are the left side, and 100 of them are the right side. In the highly unlikely event that you would ever need more than 100 repeaters programmed into your device, for example, you would need to program some of them into the left, and some into the right.  For GMRS this is not terribly significant; though there may be a few people who use a lot of memory banks, I suspect that most of us aren't using more than 100. If you need <100 total, then you could make left and right both contain the same things. But I suppose for those who want many configuration combinations for GMRS frequencies, you could burn through 100 and have to start using the left side and right side for separate configuration storage.

3: The CHIRP driver for the RA-87 sets "VALID_BANDS" to [(400000000, 480000000)]. It would be interesting to see what happens if one added more ranges to VALID_BANDS. (Bricking the radio is a possible "what happens", though.) This seems to align with what others have posted, that this radio will scan frequencies between 400MHz and 480MHz but not outside that range. It does look like tuning steps can be set to 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (kHZ?).

 

4: The RA87StyleRadio class definition sets _gmrs = True. I imagine this results in allowing transmission on GMRS frequencies. In searching the code, I do see other radios setting _gmrs = True, or False, and see that other common settings for other radios are _ham, _murs, _pmr... with appropriate bands set in various ways. 

 

There is another thread on mygmrs where the question is asked whether the RA87 can scan 2m frequencies (and another comment that the manual doesn't mention any such capability). It is possible that this is simply not a capability of the RA87 hardware, but it would be interesting to modify the CHIRP driver for the RA87 to replace 

    VALID_BANDS = [(4000000000, 4800000000)]

with 

    VALID_BANDS = [(1440000000, 1480000000), (4000000000, 4800000000)]

...and upload that to the radio, hopefully not bricking it in the process. I'm sure that adding _ham = True would cross over the no-longer-type-accepted line, though. And who knows if the radio would die a sudden death if one were to key up in 2m.

 

For anyone who wants to look at the CHIRP driver code for this radio: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/d644af4b89c8edfe1b59f2f4aa929fc725056edd/entry/chirp/drivers/retevis_ra87.py

 

 

 

[SvenMarbles]

18 hours ago, WRQW589 said:

I was reading the CHIRP python code for the RA-87 and spotted a few interesting sections:

1: A listing of the actual (targeted) power level for each of the power settings (low, low2, low3, mid, high).

 POWER_LEVELS = [chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low", watts=5.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low2", watts=10.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low3", watts=15.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("Mid", watts=20.00),
                    chirp_common.PowerLevel("High", watts=40.00)]

 

2: The programming indicates that the "left" and "right" side of the radio have rather independent memories. This is also described a bit in the manual. But to be a little clearer, the radio is marketed as having 200 memory slots for programming, and while this is correct, 100 of them are the left side, and 100 of them are the right side. In the highly unlikely event that you would ever need more than 100 repeaters programmed into your device, for example, you would need to program some of them into the left, and some into the right.  For GMRS this is not terribly significant; though there may be a few people who use a lot of memory banks, I suspect that most of us aren't using more than 100. If you need <100 total, then you could make left and right both contain the same things. But I suppose for those who want many configuration combinations for GMRS frequencies, you could burn through 100 and have to start using the left side and right side for separate configuration storage.

3: The CHIRP driver for the RA-87 sets "VALID_BANDS" to [(400000000, 480000000)]. It would be interesting to see what happens if one added more ranges to VALID_BANDS. (Bricking the radio is a possible "what happens", though.) This seems to align with what others have posted, that this radio will scan frequencies between 400MHz and 480MHz but not outside that range. It does look like tuning steps can be set to 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (kHZ?).

 

4: The RA87StyleRadio class definition sets _gmrs = True. I imagine this results in allowing transmission on GMRS frequencies. In searching the code, I do see other radios setting _gmrs = True, or False, and see that other common settings for other radios are _ham, _murs, _pmr... with appropriate bands set in various ways. 

 

There is another thread on mygmrs where the question is asked whether the RA87 can scan 2m frequencies (and another comment that the manual doesn't mention any such capability). It is possible that this is simply not a capability of the RA87 hardware, but it would be interesting to modify the CHIRP driver for the RA87 to replace 

    VALID_BANDS = [(4000000000, 4800000000)]

with 

    VALID_BANDS = [(1440000000, 1480000000), (4000000000, 4800000000)]

...and upload that to the radio, hopefully not bricking it in the process. I'm sure that adding _ham = True would cross over the no-longer-type-accepted line, though. And who knows if the radio would die a sudden death if one were to key up in 2m.

 

For anyone who wants to look at the CHIRP driver code for this radio: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/d644af4b89c8edfe1b59f2f4aa929fc725056edd/entry/chirp/drivers/retevis_ra87.py

 

 

 

Very interesting. It seems like most radios of Chinese origin seem to be pretty wide open radios by default, and only set “boundaries” with software. It wouldn’t surprise me if the 87 is perfectly capable of doing VHF as well and that Retevis would release a new variant of it, but it would just be the same radio with those code parameters changed up a bit.. 

There actually is an option on the Retevis software on the very first prompt that has a drop box to select UHF or VHF. I tried selecting VHF when I first started playing with it, but it just doesn’t work. It just won’t read the radio/programming cable anymore if you switch that. So that’s a bit of a give away right there that they intend on future expansion with this radio.. 

 

I didn’t do my little write up/review of the radio yet because I kind of struggle to really have a great deal to get into with it. It’s just kind of a very simple and straightforward GMRS radio. It’s a good radio that “radios good” . I’m told that I sound nice from others on the receiving side. Mic gain audio seems perfect out of the box. It definitely pumps out very near the 40 advertised watts. Mine is 39.3. It’s got a good and loud speaker. It’s a heavy and chunky steel radio that feels quality. The programming cable that is included works. I like that it can stay plugged into the radio and computer all the time because it’s a separate jack on the back. I can be in the middle of using it, open chirp, change something, and upload and the radio doesn’t even mute or anything while it happens. It’ll just power off and on again when finished and just right back to being used… It’s a nice feature for if you use it as a home/base radio on your desk right by your computer. 
 

So I mean, yeah.. It’s just kind of a simple and good radio. There isn’t really anything that I find to be a shortcoming. Maybe just that the radio face and menu logic/buttons aren’t that intuitive. I haven’t figured out how to make it scan . But I also don’t really need it to, so I haven’t spent much energy on looking into it. I wish the alpha tagging allowed more characters.

[dosw]

Just found this: 60w amateur transceiver

 

This appears to be the same radio as the RA87, with an Amateur radio firmware instead of a GMRS firmware.

 

It appears to be a single-band radio, that allows one to choose between 134-176MHz/ 340-400MHz/ 400-480MHz. This model is called Recent RS-900, and is marketed as 60w. Yesterday I found some literature showing that the RS-900 can transmit at 60w/50w, whatever that means (I found somewhere a source that claimed 60w for VHF, 50w for UHF, but I can't find that now.

 

Here's another link: https://www.anyradios.com/product/recent-rs-900-vehicle-mouted-radio/

In this link, you must select the version; vhf, 340-400UHF, or the 400-480 UHF band, which further supports that this is a single band radio, probably configured by its firmware.

 

Using this link you can see the power levels that the RS900 should be capable of: https://twowayradioshoppe.com/copy-of-copy-of-vhf-marineb-transceiver-mobile-radio-rs-900-p4476598.html . In that link, the power levels are listed as 5/10/20/30/50. I think that the RA87's manual claims 5/10/20/30/40. So I don't know if the marketing is inflated for the RS900 (showing 50 max), or if the GMRS firmware for it is capping at 40w, or if the manual for the GMRS version is just wrong, since there are some reviews for the RA87 that claim people are getting more than 40w out of it. Anyway, it doesn't ultimately matter; 35w, 40w, 50w... all about the same thing.

[CoffeeTime]

I ordered a RA87 GMRS directly from Retevis. I have been learning it for a week.  Exploring enough to learn that a Full Reset doesn't fully reset. 

My GMRS version only has 2 power settings available --Low and High--  accessed from the front buttons, the latest version of Chirp Next, or the Retevis software.  Just Two.  

I too have seen the older videos and write-ups about multiple power settings on the RA87.  However,  I am guessing that the GMRS Model's firmware might have changed a lot during the FCC GMRS Certification process.  FYI, the Retevis website (as of yesterday) only shows a GMRS version in model RA87.  A multilevel power version is nowhere to be found. 

The two dislikes I have so far on the RA87 GMRS :

1) The included paper manual desperately needs to be re-written.  It requires much guesswork and head-scratching about what the author is trying to convey!  In the additional  WTH category:  the included manual has references to mode option page numbers that do not exist in this included manual.    

2)  I would have much preferred that the (revised??) RA87 GMRS software  just  excluded the 0.5 watt FRS  Frequencies  TOTALLY  from a Mobile Radio. 

Would the US FCC mandate that all GMRS radios must have 0.5 Watt FRS Channels included-- even a mobile????????????????????  I understand "shared frequencies"  but 0.5 watt FRS freqs. on a Mobile radio?   

So, what is currently set up is that the installed firmware restricts/locks these 7 Channel Slots as no TX.    I can't delete the 0.5 watt FRS Frequencies --and then program in  Regular GRMS TX and RX Repeater Frequencies with TX and RX capabilities.   So, I skip over them all in scan mode. 

I am hopeful that future firmware updates might fix these issues (and the power options) depending on consumer feedback to Retevis. 

I can't see why the RA87s (that are included in the repeater bundle) couldn't use the same updated firmware=  no 0.5 FRS,  all the past power level options, etc.  I would like those power options back -- even if running through a duplexer/ and for heating and duty cycle considerations, etc.

 

 

 

 

[dosw]

1 hour ago, CoffeeTime said:

I ordered a RA87 GMRS directly from Retevis. I have been learning it for a week.  Exploring enough to learn that a Full Reset doesn't fully reset. 

My GMRS version only has 2 power settings available --Low and High--  accessed from the front buttons, the latest version of Chirp Next, or the Retevis software.  Just Two.  

I too have seen the older videos and write-ups about multiple power settings on the RA87.  However,  I am guessing that the GMRS Model's firmware might have changed a lot during the FCC GMRS Certification process.  FYI, the Retevis website (as of yesterday) only shows a GMRS version in model RA87.  A multilevel power version is nowhere to be found. 

The two dislikes I have so far on the RA87 GMRS :

1) The included paper manual desperately needs to be re-written.  It requires much guesswork and head-scratching about what the author is trying to convey!  In the additional  WTH category:  the included manual has references to mode option page numbers that do not exist in this included manual.    

2)  I would have much preferred that the (revised??) RA87 GMRS software  just  excluded the 0.5 watt FRS  Frequencies  TOTALLY  from a Mobile Radio. 

Would the US FCC mandate that all GMRS radios must have 0.5 Watt FRS Channels included-- even a mobile????????????????????  I understand "shared frequencies"  but 0.5 watt FRS freqs. on a Mobile radio?   

So, what is currently set up is that the installed firmware restricts/locks these 7 Channel Slots as no TX.    I can't delete the 0.5 watt FRS Frequencies --and then program in  Regular GRMS TX and RX Repeater Frequencies with TX and RX capabilities.   So, I skip over them all in scan mode. 

I am hopeful that future firmware updates might fix these issues (and the power options) depending on consumer feedback to Retevis. 

I can't see why the RA87s (that are included in the repeater bundle) couldn't use the same updated firmware=  no 0.5 FRS,  all the past power level options, etc.  I would like those power options back -- even if running through a duplexer/ and for heating and duty cycle considerations, etc.

 

 

I received mine within a day or two of you -- probably a couple of days earlier, also directly from Retevis, shipped from China. Given that there is no new firmware on the Retevis site for this radio, and that I received mine very close in time to you, I believe we have the same firmware. I don't know how to see the firmware version, though.

First, let me say you're right about the manual, it's thorough but thoroughly translated in a version of English that is nearly incomprehensible without reading several times to understand the odd word choices. And it's also correct that the table of menu items refers forward in the manual to pages that don't exist. Fortunately the explanations are included in the manual, just not on the right pages. You are also correct that the memory slots 8-14 cannot transmit, which was called out in a different thread for this radio. Somehow in designing the firmware they thought that memory slots 8-14 were somehow significant, rather than understanding the actual FCC requirements which are based on frequency.

You can put whatever you want in those seven slots -- 8-14, but you can only listen on them.  On the other hand, with that in mind, you could leave those slots completely empty (CHIRP allows that), and the channel dial will skip past them. Then you can look at the radio as having 186 memory slots, not 200.

However, I think your power levels concern might be incorrect. I've got the latest version of CHIRP right now (not "next", but the latest production version), and it does support multiple power levels. I'll include a screenshot. I have also looked at the code for the RA87 driver in chirp, and it hasn't received an update in the actual RA87 driver code since May 18, 2024. So I believe that whether or not we're both using the same version of CHIRP, we're probably using the same driver. Unless there's a code branch that isn't in the repository, that driver hasn't changed. And that driver supports five power levels. It is correct (from what I can tell) that the *manual* is wrong in stating that you can cycle through multiple power levels from the radio's keypads. You cannot. But you can configure them using CHIRP. I will also show pictures of the radio's display showing L2, L3, M, and H.

 

In the attached pictures you'll see that I have GMRS channel 18 stored in multiple memory slots in the radio so that I can quickly/easily switch between power levels for that frequency by turning the memory selector. They're labeled FAM18x where x is L2, L3, M, and H. I use "FAM" or "FM" for "Family channel." That's just my own names for them so that I can quickly switch between them. You'll see at the top of each of those pictures, L2, L3, M, and H in small letters. That's the radio actually telling me in its own words that it is set to a power level other than L and H. In the last picture you'll see a screenshot of CHIRP where I have those "channel 18" configurations set up. And you'll see the drop-down menu showing them.

Also here is a screenshot of the CHIRP code repository showing the power levels defined in the RA87 driver for CHIRP. This driver hasn't changed since May 18. I don't know about the Retevis software for this radio, as I don't run a Windows computer, and haven't bothered getting it set up using Wine under Linux since CHIRP does everything I need it to do.

 

I've been meaning to provide some thoughts on this radio after a week of use, but I'm not at a week yet. Nevertheless:

1. The manual is relatively complete but completely obfuscated with terrible translations and tables with page number crossreferences that don't match up. It was probably ported over from the Amateur version of the radio which would have had more pages in the manual.
2. Power levels can only be set "low" and "high" from the keypads. But in CHIRP can be configured to one of five settings.
3. It's a single-band radio. As such, it's configured for being able to listen to 400MHZ-480MHZ. There are versions of the radio configured for the 2m band and for a 300MHZ band, but they're sold by a different vendor under a different name.
4. Memory slots 8-14 are listen-only, regardless of what is programmed into them.
5. The sound quality is very good. I've gotten good responses from those listening to me, and I've also tested with a VOX-activated voice recorder so that I can listen back and hear the quality myself.
6. Power levels are pretty close to accurate. Those complaining that it doesn't produce the correct power level (40w for example) are probably using it with a 12v battery only, not a 13.8v power supply, and not with a vehicle running its alternator, which produces more like 14.5v. If you run it at 13.8 it seems to be very close to 40w on full power.
7. The mic is very light weight; I prefer the weighted feel of the MXT275, by comparison. Also the PTT button is a little less "sure" than I would prefer, but works just fine.
8. Turning off the button-press and other beeps is the first thing I did. It's really annoying to have it beep every time the scan mode finds someone talking.
9. The left and right sides of the radio each have 100 memories, of which you can transmit on 93. You can't transmit on memory slots 8-13. This is a bug in the firmware. But also, if the bug were in memory locations 94-100, would you care as much? If you put nothing in those slots, they won't come up as you turn the channel selector knob.
10. It seems to have a scrambling mode which I think is not allowed by the FCC for GMRS. I haven't tested it to see if it's actually enabled. But it shows up in the manual, and in the menus.
11. You cannot transmit on anything that isn't a GMRS frequency, even if you store the frequency using CHIRP. (A friend loaned me a dummy load.) It will give you the "no way" beep if you try. But you can listen to 446.0000 just fine.
12. I've tested it with a 3dbi antenna and a 6dbi antenna, both easily reaching a repeater 63 miles away with good signal quality, and good quieting. I have line of sight to that repeater from my home (my home is at 5000 feet, and that repeater is about 6800 feet, with the valley floor at 4200 feet). I've also hit a repeater about 22 miles away, another about 15 miles away, and worked simplex within a couple of miles just to test. I have a lot more testing to do to see how the 40w compares to my old 15w radio. Probably less difference than one would think, though.
13. I haven't found a way to turn off dual watch. So if you want the radio to not annoy you with flipping over to the other side as you're monitoring a GMRS frequency, find a never-used frequency, and put a squelch code on it so that it will leave you alone.
14. The "Call" button is confusing, given the oddly translated instruction manual. It seems to be for storing frequencies into next-empty memory slots, but I haven't gotten it figured out yet.
15. The memory labels are only six-characters max. All caps.
16. I really like having a squelch dial rather than only digital settings.

For my uses, it's a great value; I paid about $159 for it. And it outputs the power I want, and with scanning and channel storage features I wanted. It's a better radio than my old MXT275 in most ways except for size and the feel of the mic. Sound is better. Flexibility is much better. It has some quirks, for sure. But they're pretty easy to work around once you get it configured with CHIRP.

[SvenMarbles]

Quote

I haven't found a way to turn off dual watch. So if you want the radio to not annoy you with flipping over to the other side as you're monitoring a GMRS frequency, find a never-used frequency, and put a squelch code on it so that it will leave you alone.

This is literally what I do. I load in an arbitrary FRS frequency and then set a high numbered iDCS tone, and then alpha tag that channel as "OFF". It's my saved channel #1 on the right side... Works as though it were a baked-in feature..

 

[dosw]

3 minutes ago, SvenMarbles said:

This is literally what I do. I load in an arbitrary FRS frequency and then set a high numbered iDCS tone, and then alpha tag that channel as "OFF". It's my saved channel #1 on the right side... Works as though it were a baked-in feature..

 

Could even put it in memory slot 8 since you can't transmit there anyway.  

[SvenMarbles]

3 minutes ago, WRQW589 said:

Could even put it in memory slot 8 since you can't transmit there anyway.  

I just have all of those slots skipped. First thing I did was wipe the default channel programing. Put my repeaters at the top few channels and then the rest of the GMRS band plan below skipping 8-15. It doesn't matter what the radio channel numbers are because I just alpha tag what the channels are anyway, and like you said the blanks just skip over when tuning the knob. I have the left and right side programmed the same way except for programming my "OFF" channel to #1 on the right side.

[CoffeeTime]

After reading the very detailed post from  WRQW589   I was quite eager to get back into the truck and try to get the power options working like on his RA87.   

I was wrong!  I was able to find the power settings in the software today.  I reprogrammed new power levels into several channels.  All uploaded fine and the display showed the new levels. 

I then decided to test what would happen if I tried (like on-the-go) to change the power levels manually from the radio face.  Using Channel 22 as a subject (which was at power level L2), I did a manual power change (the FUN>MHZ>6 option process)  and rotated the knob to change power levels.  The display went from L2 to L3 with a higher-pitched tone.  I saved and exited.  I then tried to change the power level back to (software set) L2.   The radio reverted to Low with a normal tone. Channel 22 power options are now back to only low or high power.    

 That is okay by me. I just wanted to test what would happen.

 

The other issue, that I am working on, is that My radio has 2 banks of 30 channels.  I know what the manual states -- but that claim is not reflected in my radio so far.    When using the software, to program this radio, the channels written to the software beyond channel 30 are ignored/ and don't install/write to the radio.    

My RA87 channel selector knob goes from channel 30 back to channel 1 in either bank.  

I admit that I  don't need 200 memory channels (like the manual states) but I am wondering if I am missing some hidden option to activate those other 140 Memory and Call channels and Memory Channel management like the book states.

Making slow progress. 

Thanks all!