[Trlog] Paddle port anomaly

[Mel Crichton]

In order to keep using TR for mobile radio contesting I have gone thru a handful of 12 volt laptops. My one experience using N1MM  (when my win 95 lptop died) at 70 MPH was not pretty.

The latest laptop (a WIn 98 SE Panasonic) sends CW fine and is RFI proof.... but the paddle port is odd

It sends dits fine.... at the same speed as the keyboard & F keys. But the Dah side sends di-dah-di-dah-di-dah at the correct speed. there's nothing wrong with the paddle.

The laptop has 4.5 volts at pin 14... close enough to 5 volts

I fiddled with the pull up resistors... increasing resistance, decreasing, taking them out altogether..... nothing changed. Still good CW from the F keys, the dit paddle, but di-dah from the dah side of the paddle

The adapter cable works fine on the shack PC. I tried another adapter and it would not work at all with this laptop, but it also works fine with the shack PC. I suspect it's someting in the laptop's paralell port hardware.....

Anybody else seen this?

Mel KJ9C