Got a cheap programming cable off amazon for my baofeng radio
(UV5RA). it's a Retvis 2-pin USB cable, was about 8USD. Setup
CHIRP under Ubuntu, which was pretty easy. The software was
not the greatest, but it was very workable once you got used
to it. I did appreciate that I had online sources for
importing repeater information easily. I programmed two HTs
with the same set of repeaters (2m and 70cm.)