That sounds reasonable - I have been just leaving it plugged in, even when not in use. It could be VM turning it loose when suspended. But... as part of the suspension process, all the settings are supposed to be saved.
I haven't noticed it on the Mac side, unless it is one of the "untitled" devices.
I am going to try it again and see if it shows up on the Mac side, I didn't see it there before.
Weird thing, though... the other night, I suspended VM and left the Mac on. I left the computer for the night and when I returned the next morning, I had a warning message on my Mac that one of my USB devices was drawing too much power from the computer, so all the USB devices were deactivated.
I ejected the USB devices on the Mac side after giving each a title (I had neglected to do so before - I had about three untitled devices). When I plugged each back in, they worked.
I'm relating this next experience for the sake of anyone else who might find themselves in a similar situation:
I just plugged the RS USB cable in, and Mac did not recognize it or indicate that anything was plugged in. I opened VM to work with Windows and it did not show the RS USB cable in the device list (it's labeled correctly in Windows, btw). I unplugged and replugged and it still was not showing up. So, I got to looking around and found a USB icon on the bar beneath the Windows window. There's no text when I just hover my pointer over it, so I did not realize you could click it until I tried. I clicked it and a bar of text showed up beneath the icon that said, "Connect to Future Devices USB <-> Radio Scanner Cable." Upon hovering over that text, it was highlighted. I clicked the highlighted text and the cable popped up in the device manager. It's odd, because other device are automatically highlighted on that bar. I didn't realize that the content could be highlighted and clicked until just now. So, there you go. If you open VM and don't find your USB <-> Radio Scanner Cable (and likely any other device that you had previously installed), look for it on the VM bar beneath the Windows window.
Another thing that I noticed is that my Mac got a little quirky the other day when I used the printer. This has happened only after installation of VM. Windows recognizes my printer and has probably claimed it as its own. The printer is most likely suffering from an identity crisis. Well, that's another problem for another day (and forum).
I'm getting ready to dive back in and work with the Win500. I'll make sure to eject the cable when I'm done, this time.