[Trlog] XP and TR

[Richard Ferch]

On Wed, 26 May 2004 at 02:17:42 -0700, you said:


>My W98 Dell laptop died while mobile during the Oregon QSO party. I need to
>replace it but all the new available units are USB only and run XP or W2k.
>Our corporate IT guy, who has to support my L/T decision, suggested I put a
>reduced W98 version on a USB plug-in "thumb drive" and run the DOS session
>from there rather than resorting to Partition Magic or one of the other
>suggested work-arounds. At $30 for 128M it certainly seems reasonable.
>Anyone have comments on this strategy?
>Are available USB to RS232 converters okay with this?
>tnx,
>Dick Frey    k4xu

I see two big questions here:

1. Can a thumb drive be used as a boot device? I would have thought that 
you needed to have a driver loaded (under an existing O/S) before the 
computer would recognize the device. Is there support at the BIOS level for 
thumb drives?

2. Regardless of how you boot the computer and what O/S you boot to, will 
TRLog work with a USB serial adapter anyway? If so, for rig control only or 
also for CW keying? with any USB serial adapter, or only with certain 
brands? and if so, which ones?

I suspect you would have a better likelihood of success using a second-hand 
W98 laptop with a native RS232 serial port.

Wishing you luck, and 73,
Rich VE3IAY