[ct-user] multi-port serial boards that actually work???????

[Robert Naumann]

Jim,

I think the main reason that you don't hear discussion of this is that most
multi-ops have given up on having so many serial ports concentrated in one
machine.  The problems you cite, as well as others, make it nearly
impossible to get it working properly.

One solution to CT networking is to use the "LOOP" method whereby you only
need a single serial port in each networked computer.  The wiring of the
loop connects the transmit pin on one computers' port to the receive port on
the next and so on until the transmit of the last computer connects to the
receive of the first forming the "LOOP".  The other solution, thanks to
K1TTT, is the use of NETTSR which allows you to use standard ethernet cards
to do the networking.

Regarding the serial ports for your 3 or 4 devices, you can add an
inexpensive 2 port board to your PC (~$20) which is configurable for any
valid address and IRQ.  If necessary, you could add two of these cards or
there are 4 port cards available, but they get a little more pricey.





------Original Message------
From: "James W. Fisher, Jr." <74237.2073@compuserve.com>
To: ct-user <ct-user@contesting.com>, Andrew Hardy <computer@glinx.com>
Sent: May 12, 2000 2:55:42 PM GMT
Subject: [ct-user] multi-port serial boards that actually work???????



My computer guru and I have had months-long futile struggles with the an
8-serial-port BOCA BB1008, crippling multi-op efforts and a number of other
things, and the distributor FINALLY told us it doesn't have the usual
modern # of connections for a serial port--it was designed in 1989 for
now-obsolete serial printers etc.  GRRRRRRR!

Now we're trying to ID a potential board and negotiating with the
distributor (Ingram Micro's Toronto outlet) for a credit on the BB1008
which by now is discontinued and out of warranty (we installed it
immediately and have been struggling with it periodically ever since).  The
distributor carries BOCA and Digiboard products.  If we can identify
something from one of those two companies, it's more likely I can recoup my
investment although I can never recoup the points we lost running M/2
without communications between the computers.  GRRRRR!  (tried to avoid
dupes by assigning each band to only one rig/computer--no packet spots
either).

My computer is a couple-year-old Compaq Presario, 200MHz Pentium I MMX.  It
can accommodate PCMA cards or the more traditional ones.

Besides CT communications with my other computers, I'd like it to be able
to talk with my FT1000MP, OR2800P, MFJ 1276 packet etc.--the usual kind of
suspect but several of them.  (3 rotators, for example.)

I don't hear much chatter about this issue, from countries all over the
world--am I the only one?

Possibilities identified are the BOCA IOP658 "Turbo 8" and the PC/8E
Digiboard--anybody successfully using one of those or another BOCA or
Digiboard product?

I'd like something that functions with Windows 98 as well as DOS.  IRQ
sharing is probably a factor, but not one I know much about.

73 es tnx in advance,

Jim, VE1JF


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