[Trlog] DOS forever!

[Bob Evans]

I'm still amazed that TRlog runs on my main station's old 486/100 with
8M of RAM and a 160Mb hard drive, but it works great.  I have 3 parallel
ports and 4 serial ports running with my SO2R setup (pair of IC-765s,
each with their own outboard 9 port coax switches and ICE 6 band filters
so either rig can be the "run" rig with any antenna).  I really am
dreading the day I ever have to switch to a Windows logging program
because I haven't documented any of the connections running all over the
place...yes, it's a kluge job, but it works for me.  My interest is
primarily CW single op, so no networking needs and very little
requirement for packet, but I have hooked up an old MFJ voice keyer (the
one that had the hum unless you never touch it and mount it on a wooden
board) to play around in phone contests and it works like a champ.  You
just have to play with the Alt-Q CQ timing to get back to RECV at the
right time when calling CQ.    
 
My long overdue point is, give TRlog a true DOS environment and it will
work fine.  Any form of virtual port OS (NT, XP, Win2K) is asking for
bad CW sending.  Even with DOS running in a non-exclusive window under
95/98, your code could be jerky since the window is actually
multi-tasking.  I have found that by using the Advanced Program Settings
(right click on TR.exe and hit Properties/Advanced) and choosing
"Prevent MS-DOS based programs from detecting Windows" as well as
"MS-DOS mode", you'll be fine.  You can even go one step further and
Specify Config.sys settings such as memory managers and disk caching.
 
Now, if I could only figure out the command to adjust CW speed on the
Alt rig...
 
Bob K5WA