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 They've been replaced by Express Card slots which are completely incompatible with the PCMCIA format.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" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Tom Worthy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[email protected]> 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 > ______________________________________________________________ > Dxbase mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected]
