Apologies for flooding the list with my progress or lack thereof. I have become little wiser now, though.

1- The BFB325 radio is recognized with the BF-F8HP selection in Chirp and successfully programmed.
2- BUT: Memory channels with offset show "000.000" in the menu after programming, although the operation is OK (it does transmit at the shift). Shift indicators "+" and "-" are both on. 
3- The BFB323 radio is recognized as a UV5-R. It can be programmed (with the obvious exception of the 3 power levels) with Chirp.
4- The BFB323 radio behaves the same way as the BFB325; +/- both lit, shift shows 000.000.

None of the radios above can be manually programmed for shift in memory locations manually.

Furthermore, it seems that, e.g., transmit power can not be changed in a programmed memory with BFB325, but it can be with BFB323.

I keep learning the quirks of these things :)

Cheers,
Hans-Christian SM7TLH/KG6POK

On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 12:01 PM, Dr. Hans-Christian Becker <hcb.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
>The HN5RV01/1FB297 firmware version indicates that this radio only has
>2 power levels. It is definitely not a UV-5RTP. The correct model
>selection would be UV-5R.

Jim,
Many thanks for the quick response. Both radios have exactly the same menu structure and report "high/med/low" power settings. I'll try to measure the power when I get time. Serial numbers are also very close, but as noted one reports BFB325 and one BFB323 when holding 3 pressed when turning on.
I downloaded from the BFB323 radio, set a frequency, CTCSS t/r, shift, offset, and power level "low".
After uploading to the radio frequency and CTCSS tones and mode are set correctly, but shift and offset are "off" and "0", respectively. Power setting is reported as "Mid". In the display both "+" and "-" for shift are lit. Trying to change the offset to non-zero does not work.
It seems it is not entirely a UV5-R, but I don't know what it is :)
Cheers,
Hans SM7TLH/KG6POK