[Trlog] Multiple serieal ports for a laptop

[John (KE5C)]

> I'm slowly building up to a SO2R station.  I'll be using my IBM T22 Thinkpad
laptop for the computer.  I need more serial ports than the
single one it comes with however.

> What are others doing to get more ports?  I know there are PCI cards for two
ports.  How about 4 ports?  Or are the USB/serial adapters successful with a
straight DOS system?  Do they include drivers for DOS?

What you are trying to do is difficult.  I gave up, but some folks get a second
serial port by using a PCMCIA RS232 card.  Those cards are finicky, and the guys
I know using them run TR in a DOS window rather than booting to just DOS.  When
I did that, I experienced some funny communiction quirks, not fatal, but
annoying.  Some of those cards come with DOS drivers, but those eat into your
free memory, and these cards are not cheap, even on eBay.  I don't know anyone
who has three or more serial ports working this way, but I don't know everyone
either.  However, if you need three or more ports, I'd recommend you do it some
other way.  Good luck, and I do mean luck.

73, John