[Dxbase] USB PORTS

[Gary AL9A]

Good luck trying to find a new laptop with a PCMCIA slot these days. 
They've been replaced by Express Card slots which are completely 
incompatible with the PCMCIA format.  Of course!  I haven't seen any serial 
cards for Express Card slots yet.  I went with a USB to Serial adapter. 
Many different manufacturers and models are out there.  I have a two port 
adaptor.  When I installed it the ports were assigned to virtual ports COM5 
and COM6.  Per the instruction sheet, I checked the device drivers and found 
that COM1 and COM2 were unused for anything else, so I reassigned them to 
COM1 and COM2.  Works great, no problems.  Oh, by the way, the OS is Vista 
Home Premium.

73,
Gary AL9A


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Dougherty" <w2irt at comcast.net>
To: "Tom Worthy" <w7yw at w7yw.com>
Cc: <dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: April 19, 2008 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] USB PORTS


> At 04:45 PM 4/19/2008, you wrote:
>
>>I was wondering how those using usb ports are doing it and what is
>>needed to make DX Base work on a usb port.
>
> Well the easiest way is simply to look for a machine with a serial port on 
> the motherboard (they do still exist, though harder to find). I use a 
> MicroHam Microkeyer for my rig interface and keying and it does a perfect 
> conversion from a single USB port to numerous "virtual" serial ports. 
> Never a conflict ever, plus it's a fast and easy way to get on RTTY, PSK 
> and other digi-modes as well as it allows keyboard CW from DX Base.
>
> There are some decent USB-to-serial converters out there (I run my rotor 
> on one - no COM ports on my motherboard) and you can probably still find 
> dual-serial expansion cards out there too.
>
> Finally, if you're using a laptop, look around for a PCMCIA serial or 
> dual-serial card.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter,
> W2IRT
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