It's nice that your radio came with a programming cable included. That's somewhat rare based on what I've seen. Usually you have to buy them separately. And then you wonder, "Why does this one cost $3.95 and this other one costs $40?" One thing to note, many of these programming cables, especially the cheap Chinese ones, do not work with Windows unless you go through all kinds of gyrations to load the correct driver.

I had zero problems with a cheap cable when running CHIRP on Linux. Linux speaks many different languages, including the "Cheap Chinese Cable" dialect. Sounds like Blast didn't have any trouble using a MAC either. For Windows users out there, try the cable - if it works, great. If it doesn't you can buy a high end cable, but they are not cheap. A free alternative is to run Linux in a virtual machine on your Windows host. There is even a Linux distribution that is specific to ham radio - named "Skywave Linux". Google it to find where to download it. This distro contains lots of programs for ham radio preinstalled. Including CHIRP. So you can install a free virtual machine manager ("VirtualBox" is one such free one) and then run a free Linux distribution in a virtual machine (Skywave Linux) and you've got everything you need to work with your Cheap Chinese Cable, and don't have to worry about Windows drivers and identifying which specific driver you need and downloading it. OK - if you understood what I just said there about virtual machines and Linux distros, you're probably equally capable of installing appropriate Windows drivers. But I present this as an alternative.

"RT Systems" makes good cables and programming software. BUT, their cables are proprietary, they intentionally mess with the innards to incorrectly identify the chip inside. This is to force you to buy THEIR software. And you have to buy different software for each radio. This is their "gotcha". Well made stuff, but with a big catch. CHIRP is generic software - works with most every radio and most every cable (and it's free). As a test, I tried using an RT Systems cable with CHIRP software. No go at the start. However, when running Linux as I was, it is trivially easy to inform Linux about the lie that RT Systems hardware is forcing on the OS, and the OS then loads the correct driver. This magic, while trivial in Linux, is extremely difficult in Windows. In Windows, the OS is in control, not the user. Linux is just the opposite, with the user being the one in control. Not trying to turn this thread into a Linux vs. Windows thing, but for what we are talking about here - programming ham radios with either Cheap Chinese Cables or expensive proprietary cables - you gotta say, Linux wins if you don't want to pay through the nose for the privilege of programming your radio. So we have a second use case for a virtual machine running Skywave Linux - so you can use CHIRP with an RT Systems cable.