[Dx4win] Using Com Ports greater than Com 8

[Randy Farmer]

>Does anyone know if it is possible to make DX4WIN work with Com Ports
>greater than Com 8.  I currently run DX4WIN 7.03.  With my Microham
>MicroKeyer, I have WinKey on Com 9 and would like to use this Com Port with
>DX4WIN.  Is there a way to edit any files to force DX4WIN to go to Com 9 or
>any know software utilities to extend the number of Com Ports?

I ran into a similar problem when I put my microKEYER in service. 
N1MM Logger, which I use for contest logging, has a similar 
limitation, so it was a challenge to get everything working for a 
SO2R station with 8 ports. I have a Byterunner 8-port COM card, but I 
needed to access the radio and the mK WinKey, etc. via the virtual 
ports installed by the microHAM router software. My solution was to 
re-map the router virtual ports to numbers DX4WIN could handle and 
then rename the remaining hardware ports using the XP Device Manager. 
I'm assuming you already have 8 hardware ports defined if the router 
began mapping ports beginning at 9.

In my case, I ended up assigning hardware COM 1 to a stand-alone 
WinKey, hardware COM 2 to my rotator control, hardware COM 3 to radio 
#2 control, hardware COM 4 to the RigBlaster for radio #2, virtual 
COM 5 to radio #1 control via the microKEYER, virtual COM 6 to the 
microKEYER WinKey device and virtual COM 7 for radio #1 FSK via the 
microKEYER. The remaining hardware COM ports, on COM 8 through COM 
11, are available for use by other applications that aren't so picky 
about their port assignments.

To change the current hardware port assignments, I went into Device 
Manager and one by one renamed them. XP had no problem with this and 
applied the changes immediately without rebooting (assuming the ports 
were not in use by an application). I then uninstalled and 
reinstalled my router virtual ports to put my WinKey, the radio 
control and a hardware PTT in the COM 5 through COM 7 space. For good 
measure, I went ahead and created virtual ports COM 12 through COM 16 
while I was at it, although this isn't really necessary. I just 
wanted to debug port assignments once.

This setup is controlling a pretty complex station quite successfully 
using DX4WIN for daily logging and N1MM for contest logging. So it can be done.

Hope this helps.

73...
Randy, W8FN