Elecrafters: About a year ago, I finally hooked up my K2 to a computer. Following the advice of several list members, I got a WinKey keyer instead of trying to run CW keying through the serial port.
The WinKey is inexpensive, easy to set up with the N1MM contest program, and provides flawless keying. (I have no financial interest in WinKey; I'm merely a happy customer.) In the interest of full disclosure, I have not attempted to key my K2 directly through the serial port. At the time we were discussing this on the list, there was a minority opinion that the WinKey was not really necessary. The argument was that with modern high speed computers the serial port can handle everything. Nevertheless, if you're keying a computer controlled Elecraft rig via the serial port and you get "choppy" CW, and you install a WinKey and the problem vanishes, it looks like the result speaks for itself. 73, Steve Kercel AA4AK R. Kevin Stover wrote: > Everybody should be using a Winkey to key CW. > > Some people will deny that keying directly from an serial port > controlled by windows causes keying errors. When we ran DOS, the > applications could have unfettered access to the ports. You could also > easily harness the system clock and use it rather than the OS to supply > the timing for CW. It was easy to background a process like sending CW > knowing you had control of the port when you needed it. Not so with > Windows98 and up. XP is especially bad. > > Ever had an application or the OS grab a hold of a USB, serial or > parallel port and not let go when the application or process terminated? > It never happened in DOS. > > One question for the doubters. If a winkey like device isn't necessary > to send properly timed CW, why do several hardware manufacturers, Micro > Ham, US Interface, Rig Expert, and nearly all general and contest > logging applications support it? Just to make K1EL rich? > > W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote: > >> N1MM users have had similar issues. I don't know if AB7R's fix works but >> many have just gone to a Winkey keyer as a solution. I have one built into >> my SO2R MK2R+ Microham devices so I have never seen this issue. >> >> >> "A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may >> never get over." Ben Franklin >> > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
