[WriteLog] Writelog CW with USB to serial port adapter goes crazy!

[w0ah at aol.com]

 Hi writeloggers,
Wanted to do 24 hours SS this weekend, but as usuual, my planning began too late (Saturday morning) when I found that my USB to serial port adapter was not recognized by my laptop.  Then I remembered that my hard drive bit the dust and was replaced with a new one over a year ago, and the driver was lost.  I do not have internet on my laptop at the new QTH without going to the library where their filters might prevent a driver download anyway, so I went to Walmart and bought a new adapter and installed the driver from the CD.  It was now 2 hours until the SS began.  With the new adapter, the default port was COM 5 which Writelog won't accept.  Writelog appears to accept only ports 1-4.  I tried changing it and got a message at com ports 1, 2, 3, and 4 that they were all in use, but how can that be?  Nothing else, not even a printer, was connected.  I fulled around for an hour changing the adapter to the other USB port and at times it appeared that com port 3 was available, but
  no CW.  I wondered if my HB transistor interface was working?  Finally, it started working an hour before the test.  However, I quickly found, when the SS began, that about every 3rd contact the CW speed would go from my designated 25 WPM to over 50.  It appeared to be a random happening.  It, and lack of sleep, eventually wore me down, and I quit after 17 hours.  What's wrong with my setup?  It worked FB with the previous USB to serial adapter a couple of years ago.
Doug W0AH 
 
 
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