MockV,

I am also a beginner, and I bought the cable from buckeyes1997 and it worked great. It took me a little while getting it set up for my computer.
I bought a plane that uses a Futaba Skysport 4 Tx, so I purchased another Futaba Skysport 4 just for the simulator and I can use it for a buddy box when learning to fly the plane. The spare Tx has battery, ant. ect. ready for the buddy box or a spare Tx.
I chose to go with the serial port, because I did not have a spare parallel port and did want to have plug and unplug to use the sim.
If I can help, just email me ([email protected])

Charles