shockwave i might be wrong but i think the lack of audio is in his tx section
not rx section.
2nd issue.
The radio has no volume on receive. It appears the middle Ic/regulator is cracked/broken.
They used to have repair vendors.
Why crank up a radio past its design limits? I guess some just love to see a few extra watts on a power meter.
They tend to "tune" their radios on the hot side, I wouldn't be surprised if this caused the problems.