Baiston BST-USB-6-1 6-in-1 Two Way Radio USB Programming Cable With Driver CD for Baiston / BaoFeng Color Black

Where to begin? For starters I have tried some of the other brand cables out there - the ones that are less money than the "official" Baofeng and they did not work at all; Until I got this cable! Upon receiving the cable, I connected the Baofeng end to use with my Baofeng BF-F8HP HT...This worked as expected with the included driver CD on my win7 pc. I used the cable with CHIRP to program my HT and it was flawless. I can not attest to the other tips that are included since I just got into Amateur Radio, but the Baofeng 2 prong type worked like a charm and with MINIMAL effort on my part - other than installing the included driver. I plan on using this as my "go to" programming cable from here forward. As for pricing, you can not beat the price of this cable considering just how many radio systems this will work with. (I have listed below what i found).Regarding the cable itself, this thing is a "tank" as far as I am concerned... The cable is very thick and the ends seem beyond well constructed - I think should the SHTF, this cable will be one of the survivors.I would recommend this to anyone that needs a cable for programming HT radios and does not want to spend a ton of money - ESPECIALLY since this one cable does so many models.That all aside, I have to "reveal" that I received this item at a discount or for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion in the form of a product review.Compatible Brand : Baiston, Bao Feng, Kenwood, WOUXUN, Quansheng, Motorola, HYT, ICOMCompatible ModelBaiston: BST-530 / BST-320 / BST-2100 / BST-2600 / BST-650S / BST-558 / BST-588Plus / BST-UV6D...;BaoFeng: BF-UV5R / 888S / 666S / 777S / UV5RA / UV5REPLUS;Kenwood: TK-2107/3107, TK-2160/3160;WOUXUN: KG-UVD1P.KG-669, KG-669plus, KG-689, KG-679, KG-659, KG-689plus;Quansheng: TG-K4AT, TG-2AT, TG-45AT, TG-42AT, TG-22AT, TG-25AT, TG-UV2;Motorola: GP3688 GP88S GP3188; HYT: TC500 / TC500S / TC610 / TC620;Motorola: MagOne A8;Quansheng: TM800 / TM850..;ICOM: IC-V8 / IC-V82...;

I purchased because I'm all for having a programming cable that could work on multiple types of radios.For now, I have only tried it on m BaoFeng UV5R and I can't say that I'm impressed. For reference, I used a Win7 PC, but I don't think it was a computer issue.The cable drivers installed no problem, and I used the most up to date UV5R VIP programming program (*Note, I did NOT use the included CD as I do not know this company well enough to use their software - again, this is a possible source of the problem but doubtful). The program was able to read and write to the radio using the Baiston cable - great. No Issues.HOWEVER: at various points in the process I noticed the LED on my radio was glowing ORANGE - strange but I assumed it was just part of the read/write process, wrong: it was actually the radio transmitter switching ON. Unbeknownst to be, I was intermittently broadcasting on the channel that happened to be up while I had it plugged into the computer. I verified this by grabbing a second radio and tuning to that frequency - sure enough, it was broadcasting silence on that channel. I unplugged it from the computer in hopes that it was a software glitch and that would stop it - no effect, it stayed transmitting. I have attached a photo of the unit transmitting when not connected to the computer at all. Given, this is an intermittent problem and only seemed to occur while not actively reading/writing to the radio. But something it wrong with the cables to be sending the radio a transmit signal as if the programming cable were a microphone. I have never had this problem with my BaoFeng specific programming cable (not a multi-use cable).Bottom line: It works for UV5R, but has quirks - so keep an eye on your radio while you are using it, keep it off any used channels while plugged in, and only turn on when actively reading or writing from the program.This product was provided at a discounted price in exchange for my honest review.Take the other reviews for this product with a grain of salt as this company is promoting its product through review sites.Help keep Amazon reviews trustworthy and useful, click YES below if you found this description helpful.