Gene, Welcome to the club. I got lucky on my last purchase. Dell may or may not show serial ports on their computers but you can call and ask as they may have models that they will put them on. All the government computers I've used in recent years still came with both serial and parallel ports.

You can always use the USB-to-serial dongles. I haven't had many problems with them. In fact, the only problem I can remember having with them was an RFI problem from a nearby HF radio when it was transmitting data.

My Kenwood TS-790 is controlled by a USB device that plugs directly into the radio.

Hope that helps.

73, Eric W4OTN

I am looking for a newer laptop but when I read the ads, I notice that serial and parallel ports are not listed. Are they not in use and if so, what is used instead to control the radios and rotators?

Gene

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