I'm glad you found your way to The stuff they sell is pretty decent at prices comparable to what you might see on Ebay - but as you found out, they'll also do the programming, which can save you some money and some hassles if you really just wanted to buy a radio you can count on right away.

Heck, I remember getting a call from a guy with 40+ years radio experience because he couldn't figure out the 'Personality assignment to zone' feature Motorola tossed in at the bottom of the CDM programming tree (it's not a bug - it's a FEATURE!). I'd agree that trying to set up the software and program a CDM radio can be a daunting task for someone new to radios. I'll post and update after I get it connected and on the air. Oh well, for what I have into the Motorola, my intended use and it is a solid radio, it should work fine. It seems that programming for that is much simpler. Looking back (hindsight is 20/20) I wish I would have gone with a Kenwood. If I do, I'll eat the cost and time to ship it back to them and have them take care of it. This is going to be a simple base station unit and I don't need to be making changes to the programmed 'channels' or frequencies. They did some additional programming for me (no charge) and it shipped today. I contacted and luckily caught them before finishing my radio. Too many hurdles, headaches and work arounds for me. Not to mention, you would need a computer running NOTHING newer than Win 8 to run the software. You can official buy a subscription to the software direct from Moto but for the cost you could buy a new radio set up for GMRS, no programming needed. Do a quick search on Chirp, nothing shows there.

With Motorola, they are proprietary in their programming software.

Cps motorola radio programming software