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Linuxslate.com Review of the RadTel RT-950 PRO and how to Upgrade from Linux


True first impressions after owning this radio for less than 2 hours:

From what I have seen so far, I am very impressed with the RadTel RT-950 PRO. I have seen some negative comments in some Ham Radio Forums, and I DO NOT AGREE with their criticisms.

I also want to say that I *purchased* my radio. I have no affiliation with RadTel, or any vendor. The comments stating that all positive reviews are from "shills" or paid "influencers" are, IMHO, just as disingenuous as the bad reviews themselves.


Initial Impressions:

First off, this radio feels awesome. Holding this radio gives me a feeling that I haven't had since my Yaesu FT-470 with the extended battery pack. Getting assaulted? Using the radio to call for help will take too much time -- this radio can be used to rectify the situation in a much more direct manner -- and the radio will still work fine to report the situation after you have dealt with it. You can even directly send the location of where authorities can find the body as the RT-950 PRO has built in GPS.

The Menu Icons are large and clear. The text under them is small, but it's been a very long time since those FT-470 days, and I can still navigate the icons adequately. It may be the sheer quantity of icons and menus that are putting some people off. This radio has a ton of functionality. Yeah, if you are coming from a Baofeng UV-5R, you are going to initially feel a little like the assailant in my (hopefully fictional) story above.

But does it "Radio"? So yes, there is a lot of functionality, and I haven't even begun to explore some features. I'll also agree with the reviews that state that the included "manual" is useless. I haven't even looked at it, but I was able to quickly and easily key in the local Airport Tower frequency. I also quickly found the squelch function, and reduced it to "2". A moment later, I was greeted with a call from an aircraft to the tower that was noticeably crisper and clearer than my DOLCOM GP328 PLUS or other Chinese radios that I have.

One of the best features so far? -- It doesn't have a flash light or red and blue "police" lights. This is a radio for "grown-up's".


Upgrading from Linux:

One of the first things that I checked was the installed firmware version. This radio is (as of this writing) still fairly new, and firmware updates are coming out frequently. My firmware was already several iterations behind (V 0.21). Radtel's page indicated several newer firmwares, the latest being version 0.27 as of this writing.

But the firmware included only a Windows updater app. (I suppose at this point, I should mention that the radio included the USB cable when I purchased it.) OK, Wine (The Linux Windows compatibility environment) can be a pain at times, but what the heck? I double clicked the RT-950_EnUPDATE.exe right from within the .rar archive. (NOTE: I would recommend extracting it, but I guess I got anxious with a new radio.)

I got a message saying that my .NET framework was out of date. Being trained in IT security as I am, I tend not to blindly click on things like this -- especially with Chinese software. I closed it, and launched Winetricks from a terminal. Winetricks immediately popped up exactly the same window. This time I hit "OK". I didn't do anything else in Winetricks.

NOTE: I already have my Wine environment set up for other Windows apps. If you have a "raw" Wine installation, adding .NET, as well as a few other options may be necessary. Installing a few options from Winetricks should get you there.

I clicked RT-950_EnUPDATE.exe again, and I was greeted with the Updater Window. (NOTE: There is no Windows installer. RT-950_EnUPDATE.exe is a stand-alone Windows binary.)

I then connected the provided programming cable and plugged it into a USB port on my Linux PC, and did:
--- expecting a USB Serial port -- but there was none.

In the first case I have seen of this happening, apparently USB Vendor ID/Device ID 1a86:7523 was re-used from a decades-old braille screen reader, and the archaic drivers are still lurking in Linux. The solution for me was to remove the brltty package:
(Output not shown)

After unplugging and re-plugging the USB cable, and repeating the ls /dev/tty* command, I was greeted with the expected /dev/ttyUSB0

NOTE: If this is your first USB Serial adapter, you will also need to grant permissions to the USB serial device. This is well covered elsewhere, and will not be included here.

NOTE: USB "Drivers" are not needed on Linux. Do not install any "Drivers" on Linux or in Wine.

Next, we must assign /dev/ttyUSB0 to a Windows "Com" port. While any com port can be used, I simply added a com33 to the end of the list:
I then copied the firmware RT_950Pro_V0.27_260203.BTF to my Windows .../drive_c/users/user/Documents folder. <--- NOTE: This step is optional. I simply didn't want to navigate outside of my Wine prefix from within the Radtel app.

I selected RT_950Pro_V0.27_260203.BTF, and Com33, and the update ran smoothly the first time. V0.27 was verified in the About menu of the radio.


NOTE: See Below for Programming Via Linux: Spoiler -- it works the same way.


Next: More about general usage, and the Bluetooth App.

RadTel RT-950 PRO Bluetooth Programming App

In my previous post, I complained about some people unfairly (in my opinion) criticizing this radio.

Now that I said that -- I am going to proceed to criticize the Bluetooth App. In my case, this is the Android version. (Note: All Android Phones and Tablets are Linuxslates).

Not only is it concerningly invasive, but it is very awkward to use and quite buggy, That said... It does work.

Before I get into the details of the BT App, I will say that work is underway to add support to the CHIRP Radio Programming software to add support for the RT-950 PRO. Given the popularity of the RT-950 PRO. CHIRP support should be forthcoming almost literally any day now. There are already some 3rd party CHIRP builds and add-ons for those willing to try.

The Bluetooth app (Called "walkie-talkie tool" , and seemingly from a 3rd party) has lots of functionality, and seems to support most of the myriad of features this radio has,

On start up, it requires you to create an account, and requires that you verify your email address. It also demands location service -- supposedly for the "nearby devices" functionality. Bluetooth pairing in the traditional sense is not needed or allowed.

It also has a few more annoying quirks. The app is not interactive with the radio. All settings/channels are read from or written to the radio each time.

When the RT-950 PRO is "programmed' the App seems to consistently time out at the 70% mark on it's progress bar. While this is disconcerting, it seems to complete the transfer, Additionally, the radio reboots after this, which means that Bluetooth is turned off. This means that if you wish to edit or add additional channels, you must start over completely in both the app and the radio. UPDATE: After several reads and write, it now seems that my BT Transfer is completing at 100%. Also, the second part can be mitigated by setting "Ble WR Switch" to on in the "Optional" tab, but then Bluetooth will of course remain on. (Why "Ble WR Switch" with the funky capitalization? What's wrong with just "Bluetooth" ?)

...But wait -- There's More -- Problems. If you leave the Channel or "Optional" (I think they mean Options) screens to go back to re-connect the BT, any changes are lost. It is imperative that you save your Channels and Options in a "Profile" before attempting to write to the radio or do anything else. Save like it's 1999. Also, there is no simple save function. Each save is essentially a save as..., and prompts you for a profile name. If the profile exists, it prompts you to overwrite it. This is the correct behavior, but it adds several steps to each save.

Note also that basically every setting is saved under "Optional" if you don't have these settings set the way you want them, all settings will be lost -- for example Programmable keys, PTT Buttons, and Push and Hold functions as well as things like Display and Menu timeouts.

There are also a few general glitches -- for example, in the settings for GPS Units -- The settings for Height (altitude) are Meters or Inches. Feet is not an option (it is in the Radio itself). I think inches is just the term they use for "Imperial". Maybe Imperial isn't politically correct these days. But to be honest, given how many functions there are, I'm actually impressed that there are not more issues such as I just illustrated.

Lastly, Once the radio is programmed in this manner, some settings are (correctly) locked out. For example, if you set a Channel to "No Transmit", there is no menu item in the radio to turn it back on. This makes sense as in a mass-deployment situation, we may not want users circumventing our channel lockouts, or accessing the FM Broadcast mode.


Additional Bugs and Comments (Updated as needed):

There are issues around the new NOAA Alert Function. First, it seems that if this is turned on, there are pauses in other functions such as scanning, and possibly just other reception. I believe that the radio (or at least one of ??? VFO's) must be periodically tuned to the set NOAA station to check for an Alert.

The Weather Alert function seems to causes significant issues with APRS. Once I set up and enabled APRS, the NOAA function would pop up, and I could not get it to go away long enough to turn off APRS, or do anything else. Switching to a NOAA frequency that as not active seemed to allow me enough time to get to the settings and turn off APRS after numerous tries. This does not seem to happen of NOAA Alert is turned off.

Note also that the NOAA Alert function is new, and is not included in the walkie-talkie tool app.

For now, I would recommend using the NOAA Alert function only if there is active weather expected or happening in your area, and not using APRS and NOAA Alert at the same time.


Official RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS (Customer Programming Software) on Linux with Wine.

I downloaded Radtel RT-950 PRO CPS Programming V1.3.0 260212 from the RadTel page, and installed it in my Wine Prefix. As I did with the Firmware installer, I verified COM33 as still associated with the Linux /dev/ttyUSB0, and selected it in the app. When I hit "Read", it got about 60% through and reported an error. No data was read into the CPS. I tried several times, and it always failed at exactly the same point.

Other users (on Actual Windows) reported similar issues. At this point I do not know if it is a Wine issue, or a RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS software issue.

UPDATE: Now Working. After doing a full Reset on the Radio, the Official RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS (Customer Programming Software) works on Linux with Wine. Please Reference the first post in this thread for the serial port setup. The issue was apparently corruption in the radio -- possibly due to the Bluetooth software.

I will also say that the RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS running under Wine works very well. I have "Round Tripped" (Meaning Editing Channels/Frequencies in the CPS, making changes on the radio itself, and then reading back into the CPS) multiple time, and there is no evidence of errors or corruption. I will also note that it is much easier to install the RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS on Wine/Linux than it is to do the required Python installation to get CHIRP working. Unless you use CHIRP for other radios, I recommend sticking with the RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS.


Note: If you get an Error on starting to write to the radio, simply try again.

Note: The Official RadTel RT-950 PRO CPS also seems to have a Boot Logo import function. Note that as of right now, there doesn't seem to be a consumer-friendly way to download the original boot image, so if you explore this feature, there is no way back except possibly a full reset.


More Good News about the Radio Itself

Today, I learned I could put the radio in "FM Radio" Mode for LW/MW/SW/CB. In this mode (actually modes), the radio can tune from 2.3 - 30 MHz (and I think more to cover MW/LW). It is receive only, but it will receive AM, SSB, or CW, and it's good enough to tune WWV on at least 3 frequencies just from a VHF/UHF whip antenna (at different times of the day). I also tuned to some of my old "Sort of like CB" haunts, and it was great to hear traffic just like it was decades ago. I can't answer them on AM, but it's not totally impossible that there could be a hardware or software hack for this in the future. I was also able to copy several SSB DX QSO's on 40M.

Now I do understand some of the confusion that other sites are talking about. AM/FM/USB/LSB are not just modulation modes in this radio. They are separate bands, each with upper and lower frequency limits. This is pretty obvious for the FM broadcast band. Other modes in the FM Broadcast band wouldn't generally make sense, and having a separate group of "Favorites" totally does. In the case of AM SW and SSB, this is not as intuitively obvious because most SW/HF radios don't work this way, but once I figured out why changing the Modulation mode suddenly put me on a totally different frequency, getting to what I wanted to listen to (and saving some specific frequencies) was no problem.

Having all this in one handheld radio, and having it work from a whip antenna, is pretty amazing. Note: I was connected to an outdoor ground-plane when I was listening to 11M. Obviously, WWV and other SW reception was also much better when connected to a fixed exterior antenna.

NOTE: Going to FM Radio mode, and then selecting AM/LSB/USB/CW in the described manner also prevents accidentally transmitting with an antenna that does not work on these frequencies. Transmitting without a proper antenna for the band can very quickly damage a 10W radio.

Personal Note: I totally understand that listening to WWV in the modern world, especially on a radio that has will display the GPS time right on the top line, is a little nonsensical. I do it for nostalgic reasons, and a sort of quick propagation test.


What More Could I Ask For?

This radio already does a lot. What more could I possibly ask for? Well here are a few suggestions:

-- The PTT buttons are just basic PC mount switches, and as a result, are rather sensitive. I have to confess to kicking over the local repeaters on more that one occasion when I just meant to pick up the radio. This could be fixed in 2 ways -- A hardware mod to upgrade to "Clickier" (tactile) switches, or a firmware update to add "PTT Lock -- Key Lock -- Both" modes to the lock button.

-- OK, this one is more like a fantasy than a real firmware update request, but ADS-B decode would be nice. Maybe a Morse Code reader as a first step?