Retevis doing a bait and switch on the A3. Do not get fooled

This is going to go into a ton of information, this is not my first Retevis product as I own the NR30D, the HA1UV, The HA1G, The HD2, and now the A3. I am going to do a deep dive as well as give information on to how there was the bait and switch applied to me, so hopefully I can help other people from falling into this trap.

As I stated above, I own more than one Retevis product, and I was actually impressed with the company and was honestly hoping they could enter the ring of the big three (Yeasu, Kenwood, icom). That was until a week from being a month old the NR30D will not turn on (it is not battery charge related), the HA1G will not transmit, and the HD2 will not accept being programmed off the radio itself or through the PC, so needless to say the aggregation really set in when I received my pre-ordered A3 direct from the company.

I have no clue if this is how it was actually sent, or if customs give it a good look over, however the USB Wall Charger, The PC Programming Cable, the metal extending antenna, and the shoulder mic/speaker were outside of the radio presentation packaging. They were left to flop around loosely in the shipping box. Inside the presentation box was the radio with the battery installed. Not a smart shipping choice if it was done at the factor, also inside the presentation box was the stock antenna (more on this shortly), the wall charger cradle, and a wrist strap I cannot decide if it is BDSM fetish kink ware, or if it is meant for the radio, as well as some small black plastic piece I have no idea what it is for.

The stock antenna is a SMA Female, which as a side note I am disappointed with as I find the SMA Male antenna's deliver more "umph", but that is just me and is really here nor there. Inside the antenna it claims to be rated for 50-54MHz, 136-174Mhz, 400-408Mhz, so you get the 6M (more on this when I discuss the radio), the 2M and 70CM. Reception wise it is nothing like the HA1G or HA1UV stock antennas, but it will be passible (with plenty of static). My Testing method for the antenna is to see if I can pick up a GMRS Repeater that is 15 miles away as well as standing in my yard with the International Space Station is overhead.

The second antenna Revtivis has dubbed The Retevis HA07 yet there is zero documentation on it. There is nothing indicating what frequencies it is rated for, and there is nothing on the website. Doing some digging around I found this is a generic, off the shelf 27Mhz CB antenna. Which would be great if the A3 could transmit or receive the CB channels.

The third antenna is for short wave radios, which I would have loved to see an option to allow the user to use different antenna's however it is a 2.5 mm Micro-jack, which try as I might, I cannot pick up any short-wave podcasts with, as I cannot see it as helping the radio in any other function, I am going to say is utterly useless.

The shoulder speaker/mic as well as the PC Programming cable are a Kenwood 2 pin, and not Motorola dpg plug like all the other Retivis. This is a shame as due to the design of the radio, there is no solid connection, and with this radio relying heavily on the pc (more on this in a moment) you are going to get plenty of connection errors.

Now comes the radio. Where do I even begin, as I am sitting here really pissed off that I paid $100 + shipping + taxes and was either lied to or unwittingly became a glorified beta tester for retevis.

But first Allow me to start off with saying this radio is not cleared for use in the USA by the FCC. The FCC maintains a website where all Applications that are accepted are posted much to my shock the A3 is not certified (see picture of the back of my radio below), furthermore the HD2 as well as the HA1G are not FCC certified despite having the FCC logo. Doing some digging I found the HA1G has the same certification as the HA1UV, so I am guessing that is why the HA1G and HA1UV have the extract same internals and why you can firmware swap them.

As I mentioned before you need to heavily rely on the PC Programming cord, this is because you do not have direct key access for programming in channels. If you want to use the radio without a PC, then you need to press the key marked "Band", get close to the frequency you want and use either the left or right arrows to scroll up the frequency you want, or use the scan function to get to where you want to be. You cannot save the frequency directly from the radio either. You cannot even direct key in your favorite radio station either.

For God knows why, the keys on the front of the radio are merely menu shortcuts. Opps. I lie. You press one of the keys that brings you to the air (plane) frequency band, and you can direct key in a frequency that way. As an interesting side note; all my other radios (The Yeasu: 70D/R, VX-6R, Retevis: NR30D, HA1UV, HA1G,HD2, and Beofang UV-5R) can all pick up the NOAA weather with ease. The A3 shows it is receiving something but even with the squelch off and the volume up I hear nothing.

Let me speak about the receiving and transmitting of this radio as the web site and the owner's manual are in complete conflict of each other.

As you can see by the picture above it claims to be a 70CM, 2M, 6M, 10M band radio, this would make one believe you can transmit on those bands. This is a lie.

• 70cm is limited to transmitting on 420MMz only (421MHz to 450MHz Transmitting is blocked)
• 2M is limited to transmitting on 144 MHz only (143 to 146Mhz Transmitting is blocked)
• 6M is limited to transmitting on 50 MHz only (51 to 54MhZ transmitting is blocked)
• 10M is limited to transmitting on 28 MHz only (28.1 to 29.40Mhz transmitting is blocked)

Oh sure, I can receive the full 70MC, 2M, 6M and 10M Bands, but transmitting is very limited.

The website leads you to believe this radio can do AM, FM, SSB, CW. Even the software leads you to believe it will do those modes as you can see here:

If you thought the same, I cannot blame you. However, the reality is this will Receive in either AM, FM, SSB, CW. When it comes to transmitting you are stuck with FM only, that is if you want to transmit with a non-FCC compliant device, which I do not endorse, but you are an adult you can make your own choices. Oh and do not bother looking for how you can fine tune the SSB or CW. You get what you get on receiving. Best of luck to you.

This is a fantastic case of Retevis pulling a bait and switch on the consumer, and I have honestly lost all faith in anything they do. Hell, I cannot even return the damn thing to them as it will cost me $60 in shipping, plus the website claims they will take a whopping $15 (their 15% clause) so after spending $100 to get lied to, I get back $25? Screw that.

Buyer beware and avoid this piece of crap.