Thanks to Jock, George, Dan, Alan and all who responded to my call for help.
I was already aware that the .img file had to be downloaded from the individual UV5R radio which would then be the template used to program the channels and upload back to the radio as I had spent many hours reading every post and article that I could find on both blocked::http://www.miklor.com/ www.miklor.com and blocked::http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home sites.
I visited the blocked::http://www.miklor.com/ www.miklor.com site and obtained a copy of the program for the 291 model.
However on running this I suffered the same problem. I noticed that the program was trying to communicate on COM Port 8. But the UV5R was shown to be connected to COM Port10. I could not find any method of changing the program from COM8.
I disabled the four Bluetooth Communications Ports shown as COM3, COM6, COM7, and COM8 and reran the program. Eureka this time I had communication. I fired up the CHIRP program which also connected to the radio.
So if it is of any use to others who think their radio is not communicating with either the CHIRP program or the Baofeng program try temporarily disabling any other device that is shown using COM Ports.
I still find it strange that the Prolific USB-to Serial cable is shown connected to COM10. and CHIRP shows that it is communicating using COM4. Purely academic, as the respective programs work and I am able to program my BFB 291 model.
Mike