[CQ-Contest] USB-to-DB9 interface

[Jim Price]

Jim - I fought with this one for a long time.  The final solution for me was
two pieces:
 
1) a WinKey attached to a USB port and thence to the radio's CW key line to
handle the CW keying, and
2) an RT Systems USB-RTS01 USB adapter which plugs into the remote jack on
my transceiver.  [from K3TN's e-mail, there is apparently a newer version]
 
My specific situation:  HP laptop with Windows 7, an IC-746 Xcvr.  
I spent countless hours trying to get other 'solutions' to work.  There
didn't seem to be any way to do it with just one device, even though I had
been operating that way for years when I had a Compaq laptop with XP.  Ah,
progress.
 
73 - Jim, K6ZH
 
P.S. I use N1MM for contest logging and DX4WIN for everything else.  The
two-prong approach above works great with both of them.  You have to assign
2 different comm. ports within each program - one for the WinKey, and one
for control.