Third Party interface question sharing com ports.

Steve Blankinship AG4SO

Using three third party programs Win-link Expresses, Fldigi and WSJT-X . Radio is a 6400 remote,Operating SmartSDR 2.6.1 on a windows 7 computer. Can I share the same com ports. PTT ports with all the programs or should I create separate ports for each program. Also in Winlink Expresses I operate Win-more and ARDOP which have operate configurations so same question there. 
Thanks Steve AG4SO 

Erika - KØDD

K5CG

In fact this is one of the primary advantages of Flex Radios over non-Flex radios. You can add a CAT port anytime you need another.

Mike-VA3MW

K9DUR

Steve -- This is a limitation imposed by Windows, not Flex.  The OS will only allow one program to have a COM port open at a time.

73, Ray, K9DUR

Ha Gei

Steve Blankinship AG4SO

LZ2BE

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Boyan

Can I ask why you are using a VSPE when you can use SmartSDR CAT?  I can't think of any reason that you need to when you can dedicate ports as required to each application.  The VSPE adds a an additional level of complexity not really required.

I can see why you do that on any other HF rig, but not required on a Flex 6000 series.

Here is how mine looks:



This video might help explain it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXeMMayB3-o

Ha Gei

in my case i use a vspe to be consistent in the ever changing setup. This means, for VHF i swap the FLex with a K3 on the same COM #, just using a different VSPE setup. also some times i use another SDR Board as the second receiver, also on the same COM#  , so i do not need to change anything in DXLab setup.  
Of course, and i wrote that, it is not really needed to use a VSPE with the flex

Mike-VA3MW

Ah, got it.

The reason I want to be very clear is that new customers will read this and then call us saying they need a VSPE since this person is doing it.  It can result in a point of confusion for some customers.  Yours is a unique situation.  

Mike

LZ2BE

N2WQ

The benefit of using a third party virtual port splitter is the ability to define port splitting at the OS level and have these ports properly configured at startup, regardless of whether or not SSDR is running. You can also configure them to run as a system service and give them a different level of access from the rest of the ham apps running on the computer (as I rule, I do not trust any ham created piece of software).