[RTTY] Serial card recommendations?

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

I have installed both a the StarTech PE2S1P (2 serial, 1 parallel port
- PCIe) and the VScom PCI-410HSP (4 serial - PCI) in Windows 7 and
Windows 8.1 with no installation issues.  The StarTech uses a MOSchip
chip set and the VScom uses an Oxford Chip set.

Newegg (www.newegg.com) has a wide variety of 2S1P, 2S and 4S cards
that should work.  The Vscom board is available from Byterunner
(www.byterunner.com).

You may want to read the specifications carefully and/or go to the
manufacturer's web site to get additional information and confirm the
particular card uses Oxford or MOSchip chipsets as those are known to
work.  Some of the newer boards chip makers may work but there is not
a lot of reliable information as yet.

You may want to check the chipset on your existing boards and go to
the chip maker's sites to get updated drivers.  I suspect your StarTech
board can be made to work with the proper driver.

Note: Windows 8/8.1 has a feature called "hybrid sleep" that stores
an image of the operating system kernel when shutting down and restores
that image (fast boot) when restarting.  That causes problems when one
installs new hardware.  To install new hardware or update drivers one
needs to perform a *restart* in order to cause Windows to load a with-
out any drivers and reload new drivers.  When installing new hardware
(either USB or bus cards), disconnect all existing USB devices then
hold the shift key while closing Windows to prevent hybrid shutdown.
Install (connect) the new hardware then start Windows and install any
necessary drivers before starting any other or connecting any other USB
devices.

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 2014-07-06 2:44 AM, Don Hill AA5AU wrote:
> I'm using the SYBA model SD-PEX15011 4-port serial card in my new Dell desktop with Windows 8.1. Works fine. Installation was not
> hard but a little strange for me when I tried to use the supplied disk.
>
> I bought mine from Newegg but they are presently out of stock.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124075
>
> A friend of mine also bought one for his HP desktop with Windows 8.1 and it works fine in his PC as well. He allowed Windows to
> install the drivers for him and it installed fine with no issues.
>
> 73, Don AA5AU
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Rick Johnson
> Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2014 1:03 AM
> To: rtty at contesting.com
> Subject: [RTTY] Serial card recommendations?
>
> Hi all.
>
> Last week I upgraded my old shack XP box to 8.1. The migration went pretty smooth.
>
> But... the only thing not working is RTTY keying. One card is a Sunix brand (model 4036), the other is a StarTech (model unknown;
> but Windows found the proper drivers, or so it said).
>
> Both cards have Windows 8.1 64 bit drivers; which - according to Microsoft - should work fine. But they don't.
>
> The StarTech makes my PC crash when I try to do RTTY with it; the Sunix card puts my rig in transmit; but doesn't do the FSK keying.
> In fact, I can select either COM port in the software, and - regardless of whether the cable is hooked up to COM4 or COM5 - the
> radio goes into transmit!
> Weird, to say the least.
>
> So, my question: what are you using on Windows 8.1 that properly works in RTTY? Clearly my (oldish) cards and their drivers are no
> good....
>
> Thanks, 73,
>
> Erik - K5WW
>
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