[Elecraft] Need more than one serial port?

[Paul]

I am working on the BESCOTP award--the Bought Every Single Cable On The Planet award...

The DB-9 serial port on the back of the K-3 here has a special cable running to the Steppir antenna controller. Now I need to access the same port from the computer for another application, mainly my contest logger/keying. I have a Micro Keyer and my old cable for it was for a Icom Pro II. I have to buy a new one for the K-3, but it is $85 ! I'd go ahead and do it, but I'm not sure how to hook all this up!

So, how are you contesters out there doing that? Is there a Y cable made for DB-9? If so, wouldn't that pin out be different than the one for the SteppIR and cause problems?

A secondary problem is that the computer only has USB ports, no serial port. It's an IBM Thinkpad. I believe it has 4 USB 2.0 ports available.

Any info would help!

Thanks,

Paul
WY7I