CHIRP

FWIW, radios coming from aliexpress are known to have non-standard firmware, so beware of that. However, the response coming from the radio looks more like you're in firmware programming mode than not (i.e. regular programming mode). It's not even the response you'd expect from the radio if it has some other firmware variant installed.

Not sure what to suggest really. Make sure you're dialed to a quiet frequency and that the radio is not transmitting when you're trying. You might try powering on the radio with the connector already connected. Note that if your cable is like mine, it erroneously triggers transmit on the radio until it has been read by software at least once. So I connect the cable to the computer and the powered-off radio, make chirp try and fail to read the radio. Then I power on the radio, which sits in receive as expected, and then I have chirp try again.

That "press harder than you think you need" step is true of most of the cheap chinese radios, so that tracks. Lots of people trim their connectors. Also, some cables echo because they have TX and RX tied physically together, although I didn't think these radios use that type of cable, although I'd have to look a the code closer to see.

But, sounds like you've figured it out and I can close this as not a bug?

Thanks Dan, I think this is definitely a hardware issue and can be closed as 'not a bug'. I was trying to include detail of the debug process for those that follow. From what you say there will be more people with the same issue.

One thought - Feature request maybe? Assuming I'm reading the debug logs right. Would it be safe to say that if sent command is the same as an unrecognised received reply the error could be "Local echo. No radio connected?". Which would have lead me straight to the problem rather than assuming I'd got a new/strange firmware version.

Cable disconnected (tested 2 cables, baofeng twin connector and generic multi-connector)
[2024-10-07 06:51:04,675] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Sending hello packet
[2024-10-07 06:51:04,675] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Sending command (unobfuscated) len=0x0008:
000: 14 05 04 00 6a 39 57 64 .... j9Wd
[2024-10-07 06:51:04,682] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Received reply (unobfuscated) len=0x0008:
000: 14 05 04 00 6a 39 57 64 .... j9Wd
[2024-10-07 06:51:04,682] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - INFO: Found firmware:
[2024-10-07 06:51:04,682] chirp.wxui.clone - ERROR: Failed to clone: Unable to determine firmware version

Cable connected (both tested)
[2024-10-07 07:00:39,957] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Sending hello packet
[2024-10-07 07:00:39,957] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Sending command (unobfuscated) len=0x0008:
000: 14 05 04 00 6a 39 57 64 ....j9Wd
[2024-10-07 07:00:39,979] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - DEBUG: Received reply (unobfuscated) len=0x0028:
000: 15 05 24 00 32 2e 30 31 ..$.2.01
008: 2e 33 35 00 d4 e2 00 00 .35.....
016: 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 ........
024: be 0e 30 61 39 6a cb 4b ..0a9j.K
032: 61 b0 0f 61 a0 e6 54 48 a..a..TH
[2024-10-07 07:00:39,979] chirp.drivers.uvk5 - INFO: Found firmware: 2.01.35