How to Program an MA1 — Step by Step

A 50 watt analog dual bander whose front panel, key names and menu numbers were built to match a Kenwood. Mostly they do. The places where they do not are the whole reason this page exists.

This page covers: Retevis MA1. One model, so nothing here has to be translated from a near relative — every step below was written for exactly this radio.

What you can do on this radio

• Save a repeater to a memory channel
• Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL)
• Set the receive tone
• Set the offset direction and amount
• Set the squelch
• Change the transmit power
• Listen on the repeater's input
• Name a memory channel
• Delete a memory channel
• Turn off the roger beep
• Turn off the voice announcements
• Turn off dual watch
• Lock the keypad
• Factory reset

Save a repeater to a memory channel on an MA1

A channel on this radio is a snapshot of the VFO taken at the moment you press MR. So you build everything in VFO mode first and write it into a number last. One thing to know before you start: the book never gives this procedure its own section. The storing gesture turns up in two places — the panel key table and the middle of the scanning chapter — and they do not describe it the same way round. The scanning chapter spells it out step by step, with a blinking channel number appearing after you press F, and that is the version below.

1. Press the BAND SEL control for the band you want, then press VFO.BAND SEL›VFOThe screen should show: A CTRL marker sits above the band you are on, and the channel number goes away.Left BAND SEL is band A, right is band B. Everything below acts on the band the CTRL marker is against.
2. Rotate the Tuning control to the repeater's output frequency.dial → the output frequencyThe screen should show: Your frequency.Watch out. With the microphone in your hand, the ENT key puts you into direct frequency entry and you can key it in instead.
3. Press F then REV until the offset sign you want appears.F›REVThe screen should show: A plus, then a minus, then neither.Plus and minus have their own icons on this display, so the sign on screen is your confirmation. No icon means simplex.
4. Open menu 400 and set the offset amount, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›400 OFFSET›Tuning control›dial → the offset in MHz›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: OFFSET, in megahertz.Watch out. The range here runs from 0.00 all the way to 99.95 MHz, which is far wider than the Kenwood this radio is modeled on. That is generous rather than useful — a wrong digit here puts your transmitter a long way from where you meant it.
5. Open menu 607 and set the transmit tone mode to CTCSS, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›607 TXSUBM›Tuning control›dial → CTCSS›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: TXSUBM, with OFF, CTCSS, DCS and DCS.R.607 is the transmit side specifically. Setting the mode here is what makes 608 offer you the right kind of list.
6. Open menu 608 and pick your repeater's tone, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›608 TXSUBF›Tuning control›dial → your repeater's tone›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: TXSUBF, with a frequency in hertz.Watch out. This list is CTCSS frequencies while 607 is set to CTCSS, and DCS codes if you set 607 to DCS. The book gives two different counts for the DCS list — the menu table says 106 codes and the feature list at the front says 104 — so do not go hunting for a specific one at the end. Check the display afterwards: there is an icon that appears only when a transmit tone is set, and that icon is worth more than anything either of us believes about the menu.
7. Press F, and a memory channel number appears and blinks. Rotate to the one you want and press MR to save it.F›dial → an empty channel number›MRThe screen should show: A blinking channel number, then the radio drops back to normal.Watch out. The blinking number is the radio waiting. If you walk away from this screen the channel is not saved.

Press MR to go to memory mode and the repeater is on the number you chose. If it will not open the machine, the transmit tone is the first thing to look at — and on this radio that means looking at both 607 and 608, because setting a frequency in 608 with 607 left off gets you a stored tone that never goes out.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the transmit tone (CTCSS / PL) on an MA1

The transmit tone is the quiet one your radio sends underneath your voice to tell the repeater you are allowed in. This radio gives you two ways at it and only one of them is unambiguous, so that is the one on this page.

1. Select the band you are setting up.BAND SELThe screen should show: The CTRL marker moves.The two bands hold their own settings, so the wrong band means the right tone on the wrong side of the radio.
2. Open menu 607 and choose CTCSS, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›607 TXSUBM›Tuning control›dial → CTCSS›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: TXSUBM, offering OFF, CTCSS, DCS and DCS.R.Watch out. DCS.R is reverse DCS, which is a different thing again and is not what any ordinary repeater wants. CTCSS is the answer unless your repeater list specifically says a DCS code.
3. Open menu 608 and rotate to the tone, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›608 TXSUBF›Tuning control›dial → your repeater's tone›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: TXSUBF, with the frequency.608 shows you 50 CTCSS frequencies when 607 is set to CTCSS, and the DCS code list when it is set to DCS. It follows whatever you told 607. The two halves of the book disagree about how long the DCS list is, 106 in the menu table against 104 in the feature list, so count on finding your code rather than on the total.
4. There is a second route on the panel, and this page does not walk it: the TONE key cycles tone, CTCSS, DCS and off, and F then TONE sets the frequency for whichever is showing.Note the TONE key existsThe screen should show: Icons for CTCSS or DCS appear as you press it.Watch out. It is described rather than performed on purpose. You have just set the tone at 607 and 608, and the manual never says whether the TONE key is the same setting or a separate one — so pressing it now could move a setting a memory channel stores, in a direction nobody can predict from the book. If 607 and 608 do not work on the air, come back and try this route instead, one change at a time.

The display has a separate indicator that lights only when a transmit tone is set, distinct from the CTCSS and DCS icons. That is the one to watch — it is the radio telling you something is actually going out, which is more than either route's menu screen can tell you.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the receive tone on an MA1

Tone squelch keeps your speaker shut until somebody sends the tone you are listening for. On this radio the receive side has its own pair of menu items, which is the clearest thing about the whole tone arrangement.

1. Select the band you are setting up.BAND SELThe screen should show: The CTRL marker moves to that band.The two bands hold their own settings, so the wrong band means the right tone on the wrong side of the radio.
2. Open menu 605 and choose CTCSS, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›605 RXSUBM›Tuning control›dial → CTCSS›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: RXSUBM, offering OFF, CTCSS, DCS and DCS.R.605 is the receive side and 607 is the transmit side — the names say so, and that is as far as the book goes. It never says in so many words that they are independent of each other, so set one, check it, then set the other.
3. Open menu 606 and pick the tone you want to listen for, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›606 RXSUBF›Tuning control›dial → the tone to listen for›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: RXSUBF, with the frequency.606 gives you the list that matches whatever you set at 605 — the CTCSS frequencies, or the DCS codes if you chose DCS.Watch out. Setting 605 and 606 tells the radio which tone to listen for. Whether it actually mutes on it is menu 602, the next step — the factory setting there is SQ, which opens on any carrier, tone or no tone. So these two on their own do not make you deaf to anything.
4. Open menu 602 and set it to CTC to actually mute on the tone, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›602 SPK›Tuning control›dial → CTC›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: SPK, with SQ, CTC, TON, C+T and C/T. It arrives on SQ.602 is the gate the squelch knob sits behind. SQ opens on any carrier, which is the factory setting and is why 605 and 606 alone change nothing you can hear. CTC also requires the matching tone or code. The other three bring DTMF and the two-tone and five-tone systems into it, which is commercial signaling and not something an amateur repeater will ever send you.

If the radio has gone silent on a channel that used to work, 602 is the first place to look and it is the item people forget — left on CTC with nothing in 606, the radio will never open again. Setting it back to SQ is the quickest way to find out whether the tone was the problem.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the offset direction and amount on an MA1

Direction is on the panel and amount is in the menu, and both have to be right. Do not assume the amount is already set the way you need: unlike its neighbors in the table, menu 400 is printed with no factory default at all in this book, so check it rather than skipping it.

1. Select your band, then press F then REV to walk the direction round.BAND SEL›F›REVThe screen should show: A plus icon, then a minus icon, then neither.Watch out. It is the pair that walks it, not REV on its own: press F, then REV, and that moves one stop. Plus, then minus, then off, then round again. A bare REV press with no F in front of it is the reverse function, which is a different setting entirely — this book says almost nothing about what reverse does, so the safe assumption is that you did not mean to press it.
2. Menu 400 sets the amount, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›400 OFFSET›Tuning control›dial → the offset in MHz›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: OFFSET, in megahertz.0.00 to 99.95 MHz. What almost everyone needs is 0.600 on 2 meters and 5.000 on 70 centimeters, and those are the usual American standards rather than anything this radio decides for you. The menu table leaves this item's default column blank, so what yours arrived on is a question for your radio.
3. Menu 401 lets the radio choose the direction from the frequency you are sitting on, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›401 ARO›Tuning control›dial → ON›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: ARO, OFF or ON.Watch out. This one arrives switched OFF on an MA1, where the Kenwood it was modeled on ships with it ON. If you are used to a Kenwood picking the direction for you and this radio is not doing it, that difference is why.

Direction and amount are independent and both have to be right. If you have them wrong the radio will transmit happily into the repeater's output frequency, where nothing is listening. One warning about the book rather than the radio: it describes the REV key in two lines and never says what reverse does to the displayed frequency, so unlike on most radios here we cannot tell you to read your transmit frequency off it.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the squelch on an MA1

Two knobs, one for each band, and no number on the screen to tell you where they are.

1. Set squelch on a quiet channel, with no signal present.Wait until nothing is coming inThe manual is specific about this and it matters — set it while somebody is talking and you will end up too tight to hear them next time.
2. Turn the SQL control for the band you are on until the background noise just goes.dial → SQL for your bandThe screen should show: Nothing. Squelch has no display on this radio.Watch out. The left and right squelch controls are completely independent, so turning the wrong one does nothing at all and feels like a dead knob. The book's own description of which way the control turns is not reliable — it describes squelch as something you turn on and off rather than a level — so go by what you hear.
3. If the knob will not open the radio at all, check menu 602, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›602 SPK›Tuning control›dial → SQ›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: SPK, with SQ, CTC, TON, C+T and C/T.602 is a second gate sitting behind the knob. It arrives on SQ, which opens on any carrier. On anything else the radio also wants a matching tone or signaling code before it will make a sound, and no amount of turning the squelch control will get past that.

The order to check things in is knob first, then which band the CTRL marker is on, then menu 602. Those three between them account for nearly every silent MA1.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Change the transmit power on an MA1

One key, three levels, and one behavior that catches everybody the first time.

1. Select the band, then press LOW repeatedly to step through the levels.BAND SEL›LOWThe screen should show: H, M or L.High, then medium, then low, then round again. The icon shows which level you have SELECTED — it is there whether or not you are keying, so it is not a transmit indication. There is a separate icon for that.
2. To make a power level stick to a channel: recall it, press F then VFO to copy it into the VFO, set the power with LOW, then press F, rotate back to that channel and press MR to write it again.MR›dial → the channel›F›VFO›LOW›F›dial → the same channel›MRThe screen should show: The letter you want, then a blinking channel number, then a beep.Watch out. That F-then-VFO step is the one people leave out, and leaving it out is expensive. Without it you store whatever the VFO happened to be holding over the top of your channel and lose its frequency, offset and tone along with everything else. The manual calls the copy a memory shift.

If you keep finding yourself back on high power, that is the stored channel reasserting itself. The fix is to rebuild the channel in VFO mode with the power level you want and save it over the top.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Listen on the repeater's input on an MA1

Reverse swaps your transmit and receive frequencies, so you hear the other station directly instead of through the repeater. That is what the function does on every radio that has one. What this particular book says about it is two lines: the REV key turns it on and off, and an icon appears while it is on. There is no section describing the behavior, so the detail below is the function as the icon and the key name describe it.

1. Press REV to turn reverse on, and press it again to turn it off.REVThe screen should show: A reverse icon appears.If you can still hear the other station with reverse on, you are close enough to talk directly and could leave the repeater free for somebody else.
2. Watch the icon. It is the only indication the radio gives you that reverse is on.Look at the reverse iconThe screen should show: A reverse icon somewhere on the display — the book does not say where.Watch out. Do not leave it on by accident. On every radio that has this function, reverse means you transmit where the repeater talks and listen where it listens, so a repeater that suddenly seems dead is worth checking the icon for. This book never actually says that, which is why it is worth knowing that the icon is all you get.

The reverse icon is small and it is the only warning you get, so make a habit of glancing at it when a repeater goes quiet on you. Note also that F then REV is a completely different function on this radio — that one sets the offset direction, and it is easy to reach for by mistake.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Name a memory channel on an MA1

The radio can hold a name of up to six characters per channel and the menu item to do it is there. What the book does not contain is a procedure for typing one — so this page takes you to the door and is honest about where the instructions stop.

1. Press MR and rotate to the channel you want to name.MR›dial → the channel to nameThe screen should show: The channel number and its frequency.
2. Open menu 200 and press the Tuning control to go into it.F›Tuning control›200 M.NAME›Tuning controlThe screen should show: M.NAME.The menu table gives this item a maximum of six characters and that is the whole of what the book says about it.
3. Characters go in from the microphone. The microphone key table says the DTMF keypad is used to make calls, enter frequencies and enter characters — but it never walks through doing it.Enter characters on the microphone keypadThe screen should show: A name being built, six characters at most.Watch out. This is a real gap in the manual, not an omission on our part. The Kenwood this radio is modeled on has a full Character Entry page covering the cursor, the Tuning control and the keys that move you left and right. That page was not carried across. We are not going to copy those keystrokes over on the strength of a family resemblance.
4. Press F to come out of the menu when you are done.FThe screen should show: Back to the channel.Watch out. F is the way out everywhere in this menu. TONE steps back a level instead, which the screen labels BACK. Since the book never describes the character entry itself, check the result: pressing the Tuning control in memory mode flips the display between the name and the frequency.

Two things that do work and are documented. Pressing the Tuning control while in memory mode toggles the display between the channel name and the frequency, so that is how you check what is behind a name. And if you have a programming cable, that is the route most people end up taking for anything more than a few channels — though note this book only ever points at the software for two specific jobs, the power-on password and the two-tone and five-tone number memories, and never says in as many words that it writes channel names.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Delete a memory channel on an MA1

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

We are not going to pretend to know this one. There is no procedure in this manual for clearing a memory channel — not in the memory section, not in the menu table, not in the key descriptions. The item that would do it on a Kenwood is absent here along with the whole page that explains it. Here is what you can do instead, all of it documented.

1. Menu 202 locks a channel out of the scan and leaves it where it is, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›202 L.OUT›Tuning control›dial → ON›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: L.OUT, OFF or ON. An icon appears on channels that are being skipped.If what you actually wanted was for the scanner to stop landing on a channel, this is the real answer and it is better than deleting, because you keep the channel.
2. To get rid of what is in a channel, store something else on top of it.VFO›F›dial → the channel number›MRThe screen should show: The blinking channel number, then your new contents.Watch out. This overwrites rather than empties. The channel still exists and the scanner will still stop on it — you have replaced the contents, not removed the channel.

If you need channels genuinely gone, a programming cable is the obvious route, though this book never says so — it points at the software only for the power-on password and the tone signaling memories. Before you go looking on a forum for a key combination: this radio is close enough to a Kenwood TM-V71A that somebody will eventually tell you to hold MR while powering on, which is the Kenwood procedure. It may well work. It is not in this book, we have not confirmed it on an MA1, and a power-on key combination on the wrong radio is not something to try on a rig full of channels you care about.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the roger beep on an MA1

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

Short answer: there isn't one. Nothing in this radio sends a tone at the end of your transmission and no menu item turns one on. If there is a beep and you want it gone, it is one of these.

1. Menu 000 is the beep on every keypress, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›000 BEEP›Tuning control›dial → OFF›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: BEEP, OFF or ON. On from the factory.This is the one people mean nine times out of ten.
2. Menu 001 sets how loud it is instead, from 1 to 15, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›001 BP.VOL›Tuning control›dial → 1 to 15›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: BP.VOL, with a number. It sits at 5.Watch out. Fifteen levels here, where the Kenwood this radio copies has seven. If you are working from a Kenwood manual, that is one of the numbers that quietly does not match.
3. Menu 109 is the time-out timer, which ends your transmission for you, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›109 TOT›Tuning control›dial → off, or 0 to 30 minutes›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: TOT, with a figure in minutes. It sits at 10.Watch out. If you keep getting cut off mid-sentence, this is why, and it is doing its job. Whether it beeps at you when it fires is not something this book says either way — the whole entry for 109 is one table row.

If somebody on the air says they hear a beep at the end of your overs, it is not this radio. A courtesy tone from the repeater itself is much the likeliest answer.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off the voice announcements on an MA1

This radio does not have this feature. What follows is what it does have, and why the thing you were looking for is not here.

This radio does not talk. There is no voice announcement system, no optional unit that adds one, and nothing anywhere in the menu table, which runs from 000 to 998, that has anything to do with speech. The Kenwood this radio was modeled on has a whole block for it at menus 003 through 009; on the MA1 those numbers do not exist at all.

1. The closest thing is menu 500, which sets the message the radio shows when you switch it on. Rotate to it, look, and press F to come back out.F›Tuning control›500 P.ON.MSG›FThe screen should show: P.ON.MSG, six characters, set to HELLO from the factory.Written, not spoken. Worth knowing it is there if what you wanted was some sign the radio has woken up.Watch out. This step is a look, not a change. Menu 500 is a six-character text field, so pressing the Tuning control here puts you into editing the power-on message — which is not what you came for.
2. And the beep is the only audible feedback the radio gives. Menu 001 sets its level, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›001 BP.VOL›Tuning control›dial → 1 to 15›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: BP.VOL, 1 to 15.Watch out. If you need a radio that reads menu items out loud — because you cannot see the display in a car, or at all — this is not one, and no accessory makes it one.

Worth saying where this leaves you if voice matters. Kenwood's own TM-V71A takes an internal VGS-1 unit that announces frequencies, channels and menu numbers aloud, and several Yaesu mobiles have an equivalent. Those are different radios, not options for this one.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn off dual watch on an MA1

This radio has two receivers, so listening to two frequencies at once is the normal state rather than a mode you switch on. The only question is whether both are on screen.

1. Hold a BAND SEL control for about a second to switch between one band on screen and two.hold BAND SELThe screen should show: The display goes from two halves to one, or back.Watch out. The book says this two different ways: the panel table says hold for a second, and the operating page says simply press. A plain press already has a job — it selects which band you are on — so this page uses the hold. If a press alone flips your screen, that is your radio answering the question.
2. A short press of the left or right BAND SEL chooses which band you are acting on.BAND SELThe screen should show: The CTRL marker moves to that band.There are two markers and they mean different things. CTRL shows the band the knobs and menu are acting on; PTT shows the band you will transmit on. They are usually the same and they do not have to be.
3. Menu 527 draws a bar between the two halves of the display, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›527 DP.BAR›Tuning control›dial → ON›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: DP.BAR, OFF or ON. Off from the factory here.Cosmetic, but it makes it much easier to see at a glance which half of the screen you are reading. Note it ships off on this radio and on from the factory on the Kenwood.

Two receivers means two volume controls and two squelch controls, and that is where most confusion with this radio starts. If one side has gone silent, check that side's own knobs before anything else. Both bands can also be put on VHF at once, or both on UHF, which the manual mentions in passing and which is genuinely useful if you live somewhere with everything on 2 meters.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Lock the keypad on an MA1

Three separate locks for three separate sets of keys. Do them in this order — the panel lock goes last, because it disables the front panel keys and the knob, which are what you need to reach the other two.

1. Menu 513 locks the microphone's programmable keys, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›513 MIC.LCK›Tuning control›dial → ON›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: MIC.LCK, OFF or ON.Watch out. Separate from the panel lock, which comes last on this page. If the thing getting pressed in your car is the microphone swinging on its hook, this is the setting for it. The microphone also has its own lock key on the body, which does the same job without a menu.
2. Menu 304 stops the microphone's number keys sending DTMF tones, pressing the Tuning control to go into the item and again to set the value, then F to come out of the menu.F›Tuning control›304 DT.LOCK›Tuning control›dial → ON›Tuning control›FThe screen should show: DT.LOCK, OFF or ON. Off from the factory.The menu table spells out what this is for: keeping the numeric keypad from firing DTMF into a repeater when something leans on it. On a linked system that is not a harmless noise.
3. Hold F for a second to lock the radio's own panel, and hold it again to unlock.hold FThe screen should show: A lock icon appears.This is the main one and covers the front panel keys and the knob.

If the panel has gone unresponsive and there is no lock icon showing, the lock is not your problem. Check whether the radio has been left in cross-band repeater mode — the manual notes that the panel is locked out while that is running, and that it comes back on by itself at the next power-up until you turn it off deliberately.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Factory reset on an MA1

Three kinds of reset, reached by holding a key while the radio starts. There is a menu number for this in the table too, and this page does not use it — the reason is worth two minutes of your time before you go looking for it yourself.

1. VFO reset clears the VFO and what goes with it. PART resets the settings but leaves your memory channels and DTMF memories alone. FULL puts everything back to the factory, memories included.Decide which reset you wantThe screen should show: Nothing yet — this one is a decision.Watch out. PART is nearly always what people actually want. Note that the book's description of PART also promises to preserve your PM channels, which this radio does not have — that sentence came across from the Kenwood manual this book was built from and you can ignore it.
2. Turn the power off.Switch the radio offThe screen should show: Dark.
3. Hold the F key on the left of the radio and power it on with F held.hold F›Switch the radio onThe screen should show: The reset chooser.
4. Rotate to the type you want and press the Tuning control.dial → VFO, PART or FULL›Tuning controlThe screen should show: A confirmation message.TONE steps back from here and F cancels outright, so there is a way out right up to the last press.
5. Press the Tuning control again to carry it out.Tuning controlThe screen should show: The radio restarts on factory settings.Watch out. No undo past this point.

Now the part about the menu. The menu table prints 998 twice in a row — once as PASSWD, the power-on password, and once as RESET. Two functions cannot share one number, so one of those rows has the wrong number printed on it, and the book never says which. There is no 999 in this table, which is where the Kenwood puts reset and is the obvious suspect, but that is a guess. So this page uses the key combination above, which the manual spells out properly, and does not send you to a menu number that might turn out to be the password instead. One more thing worth saying about a FULL reset: it takes your channels, and this book never claims the programming software can read them back off the radio first — it points at software only for the power-on password and the tone signaling memories. Write down anything you cannot afford to lose.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.