I bought a returned Retevis RA87 GMRS mobile radio and found more than a simple programming problem: the volume and squelch control assembly was physically broken. In this video, I tear down the radio, replace the damaged dual-concentric encoder, troubleshoot CHIRP compatibility, run the official Retevis programming software on Linux through Wine, verify transmit and receive operation, and compare the realistic repair cost against the price of buying a brand-new RA87. It is a complete Amazon return repair, programming, and troubleshooting walkthrough with one uncomfortable conclusion: some inexpensive radios are technically repairable, but financially they make almost no sense to fix.
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