[ct-user] CW Port Startup

[Bill Tippett]

Hello All!

        This question is related to one asked by Saul K2XA who wrote:

>I am using a 486 which works fine on cw with ct 9.27, but when I tried using
>9.47 last year and 9.50 now, the program locks up the cw key-down.

        AD1C replied:

>I think Ken changed the way the ports work.

        Saul later said:

>Thanks for the tip, Jim.  I found and fixed the problem--the keying
>transistor in the interface was bad.....It seems strange that
>the failure mode of the transistor was such that the interface keyed
>properly when used with 9.27 but was a key-down carrier with 9.47/9.53,
>but that's what happened.

        I may be having a related problem and wonder if anyone has seen
anything similar.  I've used a 486-33 for years with various versions of
CT and use COM1 for the CW port which I wired up years ago.  My last CW
contest was the All Asia in June using 9.49 and everything worked fine.
For the CQWW SSB I downloaded 9.50 to update the Cabrillo format.  Then
I downloaded 9.53 on November 10 to get the latest updates for the CQ CW.

        I had not tried the CW port until yesterday and discovered the
following:

1.  After entering the program, when I press F1 I get nothing but a few
random dits for about 2 minutes...then the keying begins!  After this 
startup problem, everything works fine...unless I need to restart the
program and then I have to wait 2 minutes again.  This could be very
frustrating if you needed to startup quickly!  I use a UPS on my computer
and normally leave power on the whole weekend so hopefully it will not 
be a problem in the heat of a contest.  

2.  Just for curiosity, I loaded the original 9.47 copy I had on disk
and everything worked fine (9.27 also worked OK).  Since 9.49 worked OK
for the AA Test and 9.50/9.53 does not, there must have been some change
in the ports in 9.50 and later versions.  

        Has anyone seen anything similar?  Since AD1C said "I think Ken
changed the way the ports work" I wonder if I am alone in seeing some
keying problems.  If you haven't tried any CW keying with the latest
version, you might want to before next weekend!

                                                73,  Bill  W4ZV


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