Thanks for the info. I have the software and the radios came in new condition with manuals although, they aren't very friendly with the programming instructions at all. In viewing that particular cable, I realized it's one I've looked at. I'm hesitant on purchasing it because it says the phone plug is 3.5mm. That means it would have to connect to the earphone jack and in my research on the Vertex VX-500 HTs, I understood the programming jack to be the smaller mic jack which is the 2.5mm I believe. I hope I didn't misunderstand that. I may look that up again. There is one puzzling thing to me about these radios. I understand that to put them into program mode, you must depress and hold the "Monitor" button and the "PTT" button simultaneously while turning the radio on and the display should read "PROG". I haven't been able to achieve this on these radios. All I get is a moment of silence then it sounds like the radio keys up four times, changing the channel and blinking a green LED each time and then three, what sounds like to me, error tones with three simultaneous blinks of the red LED. After that, it just scans "CH01" through "CH04". I never see the "PROG" at all. I'm not experienced with this and it may be the program mode won't activate until I have a compatible cable and serial connection to a PC. I don't know. They seem like sturdy enough radios, perfect for GMRS.