I can confirm Doug's recommendation, as I have been using the byterunner cards
on several computers for a number of years. I wanted to add, however, that
another option (if you are not limited in the number of ISA slots) is that you
might consider adding one of the 2-Com port cards w/ a couple of Parallel
ports. Typically, you can select both IRQs and addresses on these cards for
each port. I have not used any of their PCI cards, but the ISA cards do not
need drivers (based on my experience) for DOS, Win98, or Win XP. Win 2000 does
seem to have a problem unfortunately getting COM 3 & 4 to share IRQs with COM 1
& 2 ,which I have not been able to figure out so I gave up on that OS for any
kind of logging.
- 73 de Alan, N2ALE/5
--- Doug Brandon N6RT <n6rt@dabware.com> wrote:
> I always recommend http://www.byterunner.com for multi-port serial cards,
> ISA or PCI. Their PCI cards come with a DOS driver which makes COM port &
> IRQ selection very flexible.
>
> If anybody needs a 4-COM port ISA card, I have a Byterunner TC-400 for $20
> plus shipping.
>
> 73 de Doug, N6RT
>
>
> At 09:23 PM 12/12/2004 -0600, Robert Pack (NX5M) wrote:
> >I have attached the link for where I bought my dual-port cards.
> >They are for ISA slots. Each port can be configured with its own IRQ.
> >They may have them for a PCI slot as well.
> >http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10276744&hdwt=30805&loc=101&sp=1
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "David A. Pruett" <k8cc@comcast.net>
> >To: "Robert Pack (NX5M)" <nx5m@txcyber.com>; "Bill Feissner"
> ><ai3q@arrl.net>; <na-user@contesting.com>
> >Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 9:11 PM
> >Subject: Re: [NA-User] 4 serial port card
> >
> >
> >> Bill, Bob, et al:
> >>
> >> I ran into the PCI/COM wall last fall when we were prepping for our VE1JF
> >> trip for the 2003 CQWW SSB. We were taking our own computers (to run NA)
> >> rather than running WrongLog which was on the host station's PCs. The
> >> computers were these cute little Acer P-200 desktops which I got at a
> >> computer show for $75 each with a 2 GB HDD, single COM, single LPT, a
> >> CD-ROM and 32 MB of RAM. The problem with small form factor PCs is
> >limited
> >> expandability - there were only two slots - one a PCI and the other a
> >combo
> >> PCI/ISA.
> >>
> >> Since this was a phone contest, the ISA slot was taken by a W9XT Contest
> >> Card. We needed two COMs on one computer (radio & network) and three on
> >> the other (radio, network, and packet). I found PCI single-COM cards at
> >> CompUSA which worked fine for the first computer after some
> >experimentation
> >> to determine what the configuration program used as the default IRQ.
> >>
> >> For the other computer, I looked very hard for even a dual port PCI
> serial
> >> card which would work with NA. While I could find dual port PCI COM
> >cards,
> >> they all suffered from a common shortcoming: the two ports both shared a
> >> common interrupt request line (IRQ) and the COM port handlers in NA are
> >> designed to require separate IRQs for each port. CT has the same
> >> limitation. TRLog doesn't because it polls the COM ports and doesn't use
> >> IRQs; however for this reason it's limited to 4800 baud.
> >>
> >> Ultimately, for the 'JF trip what I did was rummage through my junk box
> of
> >> old cards and found an ISA card with two ports with settable IRQs.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for Bill right now. If your
> >> motherboard has two COMs on board, you can probably add a third COM with
> >> the commonly available single-COM PCI cards.
> >>
> >> Dave/K8CC
> >>
> >> At 02:32 PM 12/12/04 -0600, Robert Pack (NX5M) wrote:
> >> >If you have two you could just add another dual port card.
> >> >That is what I did with all my stuff.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >73,
> >> >Bob NX5M
> >> >
> >> >----- Original Message -----
> >> >From: "Bill Feissner" <ai3q@arrl.net>
> >> >To: <na-user@contesting.com>
> >> >Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 1:51 PM
> >> >Subject: [NA-User] 4 serial port card
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > > Hello all,
> >> > > Anyone have any ideas on where to get an inexpensive PCI 4 serial
> port
> >> > > card? If you already have 2 do you need to buy a 4 port card or just
> >a
> >> > > 2 port card to add to the 2 on the motherboard? I'm far from a
> >computer
> >> > > wiz as you can see. Any thoughts and help appreciated.
> >> > > 73,s de AI3Q, Bill Feissner
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > _______________________________________________
> >> > > NA-User mailing list
> >> > > NA-User@contesting.com
> >> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/na-user
> >> > > NA on the web: http://www.datomonline.com/
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >_______________________________________________
> >> >NA-User mailing list
> >> >NA-User@contesting.com
> >> >http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/na-user
> >> >NA on the web: http://www.datomonline.com/
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> NA-User mailing list
> >> NA-User@contesting.com
> >> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/na-user
> >> NA on the web: http://www.datomonline.com/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >NA-User mailing list
> >NA-User@contesting.com
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>
> _______________________________________________
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