>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
