[NA-User] 4 serial port card

[Doug Brandon N6RT]

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 at comcast.net>
 >To: "Robert Pack (NX5M)" <nx5m at txcyber.com>; "Bill Feissner"
 ><ai3q at arrl.net>; <na-user at 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 at arrl.net>
 >> >To: <na-user at 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 at contesting.com
 >> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/na-user
 >> > > NA on the web:  http://www.datomonline.com/
 >> > >
 >> > >
 >> > >
 >> >
 >> >
 >> >_______________________________________________
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 >> >NA-User at contesting.com
 >> >http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/na-user
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 >>
 >>
 >> _______________________________________________
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 >> NA-User at contesting.com
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 >>
 >>
 >>
 >
 >
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