EarlyBirdSavings USB Programming Cable For Kenwood Puxing Wouxun Radio TK-3107 Baofeng Bao Feng UV-5

• Works as virtual COM port. We do supply the CD with driver and software.
• New USB Program cable for Kenwood, PUXING, WEIERWEI, WOUXUN, FDC, QUANSHENG, SURECOM Handheld Radio
• Quick and easy programming of memory channels, memory names and set mode contents via PC
• Draws low current from the USB port. Available for both desktops and laptops
• Weight: 85g Length: 89cm / 35"

Hello. First, Amazon should make it clearer when items are not fulfilled by them. This one ships from China. Had it been shipped from Amazon, I would have returned it.

This item seems to have a counterfeit PL-2303 USB driver chip so it does not load properly with Prolific drivers. Prolific updated their drivers to detect the counterfeit chips and it throws an error when it finds one. The drivers included in the CD that comes with this cable hosed up my machine.

I got this cable to run on a WinXP virtual machine by loading Prolific's driver version 2.0.2.5 from 4/17/2006. Newer drivers will not work and once a new driver installs, it's not easy to completely remove. This cable does work under Ubuntu 12.04 (and I suspect, OSX as well) so programs like CHIRP will run and program your radio.

Prolific, the Taiwanese company that makes the original PL-2303 warns about counterfeiting with their products. It is truly ironic that they now complain about counterfeits of their products... ask FTDI, Silabs and many others that got their chips knocked off years ago. Unfortunately, it's us consumers that get caught in the shady business.