CHIRP is a free, open-source tool for programming amateur radios. It supports a large number of manufacturers and models, as well as provides a way to interface with multiple data sources and formats.
I produced the code required to make the Intek HR-2040 (This involved modifying the code for the Anytone AT-5888UV) and the Wouxun KG-UV8D (built from scratch) to work with CHIRP.
The process for getting a new radio to work with CHIRP can be complicated. If it is a rebranded version of an existing radio, there may be little to no modification to the existing code base. As the HR-2040 is basically a clone of the AT-5888UV, all that was required was to add support for the identification strings sent by the radio to the PC.
With the Wouxun KG-UV8D the process was much more complicated as this involved using serial analyser software (the programming cable appears as a COM port) to capture communications between the radio and the PC with the manufacturer’s software inorder to determine the protocol for the data transfer. Once the communications protocol has been determined it is then a case of determining the layout of the data packets.
I have made some attempts at getting the Wouxun KG-UV950PL to work with CHIRP, but it appears that Wouxun have decided to encrypt the data.
