I spent all afternoon trying to program my new TM-V71a on my Mac.  First with CHIRP, which I use for my Baofengs:  With a new FTDI cable (the Baofeng cable has the wrong connector at the radio end) I was able to open up 1000 memory locations, each of which was blank except for 5 MHz offset.  A message told me that I was "live" and would have to make all changes to a .csv file, but when I tried to export it brought up another little window and ultimately I could not save any .csv file.

With RT systems and their cable, I tried downloading a trial version of Crossover for Mac, but when I tried to install from RT's software from CD, it said it could not do it because of either anti-virus software restrictions (which I don't have any anti-virus programs on my Mac) or because the Firewall was on (it was on, but I turned it off in settings).  

I think I'm at the point of buying a used XP laptop for $100 to be used for nothing but support of my radio hobby, but before I do that I thought I'd see how others here have solved the problem.

Thanks!

I've pretty much accepted that my ham radio stuff will be Windows. So I picked up a used laptop, super cheap, and have it dedicated to playing radio.

I suppose you could get a copy of Windows, and Boot Camp it on your Mac. That oughtta work.

I figured dedicating a box was less brain damage.

Just my 2¢

Snip. misread the OP.

This, as fast as possible. Ensure it has a working serial port most of all. I find that Windows 7 32bit has the most support for older software, YMMV depending on how old you want to go.

Understandable, I didn’t write my post very well.  I waited too long after the actual events and I couldn’t remember certain pertinent details.



I get it, these will become less and less available.  

I’m going to review my CHIRP notes to see if I can figure out the little window that pops up when I try to Export.   Another thing is I’ll see how involved it is to program the radio by hand.  One reason I went with Kenwood is because I kept reading how it has the most user-friendly interface for such.

I bought the rt systems cable and software for my new v71a as well .

Holy shit it was easy to use. Especially after having battled with vertex uhf & dmr software/cables.

I may fire up chirp just to see if it gives me any extra options, but the rt software was worth the money.

Eta: I like the idea of an older laptop. I would shoot for XP, as windows 10 is miserable to use periodically on a laptop.

I bought a used Win 7 Dell laptop and installed the RT software.  This worked, I was able to program the TM-V71A without any additional drama.

I think I might have been able to get it to work with CHIRP on the Mac.  I believe my problem was probably not having the right driver for the new programming cable.  I was also leery about installing another USB programming cable driver because I wasn't sure if it would overwrite the driver I had when using CHIRP to program my Baofengs.  But, I had already bought RT hoping to use Crossover for Mac.

The Win 7 laptop seems like a POS compared to the Mac, though.  I have a Win 7 laptop at work, too, but at least I was able to disable the touchpad there.  This one doesn't seem to have any place to turn off the touchpad, with the result that the insertion point would jump around in the text as my hands brushed the pad.  I ended up taping a piece of cardboard over the pad.  Sheesh.  

I'm ready to move forward with the TM-V71A now.  Thank you everybody who chimed in with suggestions.

Get a serial version of the cable. Then use a USB-RS232 adapter (like one from Tripp-Lite or Iogear) with a real Prolific chip in it. Install the driver for for OS X (unlike Linux, OS X doesn't support all devices natively without physically installing drivers). Then you won't have a problem with Chirp.

I have Crossover as well, but it's big downfall is the need (just like Wine) to manually map the tty over to COMx in .dosdevices so either way OS X has to recognize and load the device. CrossOver works with some radio applications and is hit or miss with others (especially Motorola CPS).