[ct-user] CT on Mac OS X

[John Graf]

Hi, Folks,
I am a Mac user, and as such I have not really had access to a full-featured
contesting program.  I know that you can run a virtual-PC on a Mac and I
have tried that.  But performance has been poor (slow) and getting all the
peripherals and serial ports to work right has been problematic.

After much experimentation, I have found what I think is a good solution.  I
am now running CT for DOS on my Mac.  I am using a program called Dosbox,
which is a free program available at http://www.dosbox.com/  This program
does an excellent job of emulating a DOS machine.

CT version 9.92.001 runs just fine, and just as fast as on a real DOS
machine.  You can run it as a window or in full-screen mode.  Dosbox
supports two serial ports so you can have rig control and CW (or rotor) with
no problems.  I have tried version 10 of CT but have not been successful
with it as of yet.

There is some tweaking of the Dosbox configuration files necessary for
everything to run right.  Otherwise, running CT on the Mac is identical to
running it on a DOS machine.  I am happy to share those tweaks with anyone
else who would like to give this a try.

I will probably not be checking the mail list for questions on this subject,
but please feel free to contact me directly at wa6l <at> arrl<dot>net.

Thanks and 73,

John, WA6L