[Elecraft] The no-serial port conundrum

[Jim Brown]

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:09:43 -0700, Garry Shapiro wrote:

>Tom, NW6P has a new K3 and a "modern" laptop with no serial port,

About seven years ago, I bought a Quatech DSP-100 PC-card for my IBM T41 
Thinkpad that came without a serial port. It provides two real hardware 
serial ports from 16750 UARTS. It's been through a lot of Field Days and 
lots of operation at home. Not cheap, but works great, no RFI issues. No 
issues with any software. Lowest cost place to buy it is B&B Electronics, 
which is in a small town about 100 miles WSW of Chicago. There used to be a 
great hamfest there. B&B is a great vendor of computer interface products for 
professional users. 

http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=23&Trail=2&TrailType=Top

http://www.bb-elec.com/bb-elec/literature/quatech_pcmcia.pdf

I just bought another one, AND one of the quad port interfaces so I can play 
with SO2R dual RTTY decoding. 

BTW -- another way to get a real hardware serial port is with a port 
replicator or docking station. These can often be found for cheap from 
various sources. I have a couple of port replicators for my Thinkpads. They 
also provide additional audio I/O. 

73,

Jim K9YC