[Dx4win] support for COM ports above COM8

[Alan Braun]

I use a laptop as my primary computer. I use both WinKeyer and a 
USB-to-serial converter, for CW and for controlling the radio. I've 
found that if I ever boot up the machine away from home, without those 
cables connected, and then bring it back home again to reconnect them, 
both devices get assigned to new Com ports, frequently above com8. The 
trick described below works fine. You must be logged in as an 
"administrator" for this to work.  The place you want to change is found 
at start>control panel>system>device manager>ports>properties>port 
settings>advanced.  You have to separately reconfigure a port for each 
device you're going to use; I've found that Windoze warnings 
notwithstanding, com4 and com5 are perfectly safe to use. Once you're 
finished, I think you have to reboot for it to take effect. An 
additional point is that once you've done this once, you can save a 
"profile". Do this once you've made changes, rebooted & found that they 
work. The place to do that is start>control panel>system>hardware 
profiles. It will allow you to save your current profile with a specific 
name - I did mine as "Radio setup - radio 4 winkey 5" so it's perfectly 
obvious what's going on. There are some other options that are 
self-explanatory; once you've done this you'll see a menu every time you 
boot up that allows you to pick either the default profile or the one 
you set up for the radio; if you don't select one in a specified amount 
of time (default is 30 seconds) it will choose the default for you. Hope 
this helps - it worked great for me. Of course, you have to remember to 
reconfigure your logging program(s) afterwards so they see everything. 
They're all different but I can help with N1MM, DX4Win and Ham Radio 
Deluxe (a really nifty freeware program that controls every conceivable 
function of most radios far better than any of the contest or general 
loggers do!)

Alan Braun NS0B/V31EV



Kostas SV1DPI wrote:
> I will add that i have not find a way (i believe dx4win doesn't 
> support right) to use the ptt of the keyer with my markv. Not big 
> problem on cw as i activate the vox, but big one on mmtty where i use 
> another interface just for it. By the way writelog does it fine...
>
> In your question now. I believe that if you change this situation 
> inside windows you will solve the problem.
> Start>control panel>system>device manager>ports
> rename com5 to com11 and com11 to com5. Windows will tell you that it 
> is problem but i have done it with no problem. If it doesn't work make 
> the reverse. I don't think you loose something. My opinion, your risk
>
> Kostas sv1dpi
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Jackson" <kz1x at yahoo.com>
> To: <dx4win at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 8:26 PM
> Subject: [Dx4win] support for COM ports above COM8
>
>
>> I have a new K1EL Winkeyer USB on COM11.  ( Plug for the gizmo:  This 
>> is a nice kit and went together without a hitch in just a couple of 
>> hours. Price is right, too.)
>>
>> To get the feature support
>> for this recent addition to my station, I just placed an order for 
>> the upgrade from
>> 6.04 to 7.03 on the DX4WIN web site.
>>
>> It would be rather challenging  ... as in, not really possible ... to
>> reconfigure this new WinKeyer to a lower COM port designation.
>>
>> I have
>> two hardware UART COM ports on COM1 and COM2 (which can't be moved), and
>> then a Digi USB-serial box on COM 2 through COM10, inclusive.  Also 
>> fixed.
>>
>> It looks like DX4WIN V7.03 only supports COM ports up to COM8.
>>
>> How can I get my Winkeyer to operate with DX4WIN V7.03?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________________________________ 
>>
>> Be a better friend, newshound, and
>> know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 
>> http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Dx4win mailing list
>> Dx4win at mailman.qth.net
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dx4win mailing list
> Dx4win at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win
>