Bug #10878
openRetevis RT15 supports PMR frequencies but CHIRP forces FRS channels
0%
Description
Hello,
Retevis RT-15 is sold in Europe on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.it/Retevis-Portatile-Ricetrasmettitore-Anti-interferenza-Ricetrasmittenti/dp/B07HFXWGB3
Surprisingly the radio is shipped with default 2W FRS channels that should not be used in Europe.
It would be nice to make it easier to program with chirp PMR channels at 0.5W
I can confirm that, as suggested on Amazon product comments, using the Radtel 12 programming software it is possible to program che channels on PMR frequencies at 0.5W
https://www.radtels.com/pages/software-download
CHIRP does not let you write PMR channels on a new radio.
After the radio is programmed with the Radtel 12 programming software, reading the radio back works, and also writing a new configuration with PMR channel works.
I suspect this is because of the _frs16 = True
statement in the RT15Radio
class.
If I understand correctly the get_memory
function:
elif self._frs16:
if mem.freq in FRS16_FREQS:
if mem.number >= 1 and mem.number <= 16:
FRS_FREQ = FRS16_FREQS[mem.number - 1]
mem.freq = FRS_FREQ
mem.duplex = ''
mem.offset = 0
mem.mode = "NFM"
immutable = ["empty", "freq", "duplex", "offset", "mode"]
Once the radio is programmed with the Radtel 12 programming software the second if
statement is False
, and the fields are not set anymore to immutable as mem.freq = FRS_FREQ
.
Here the code references:
https://github.com/kk7ds/chirp/blob/f3a0a86c8fac03cc56613b085e4b949b60987e07/chirp/drivers/radtel_t18.py#L1409
https://github.com/kk7ds/chirp/blob/f3a0a86c8fac03cc56613b085e4b949b60987e07/chirp/drivers/radtel_t18.py#L557-L565
I am new to the source code of CHIRP, but if I understand correctly it should be enough to drop line 1409 to make possible the programming of PMR channels at 0.5W.
The radio actually supports more frequencies. With HAM radio licence is possible to operate on the HAM radio UHF band at 2W.
Thank you
Saverio