[aprssig] Com port sharing utility

[Earl Needham]

At 16:37 1/14/2008, Claude Head III wrote:
>I seem to remember comments on this SIG some time ago about a COM 
>port sharing utility, whereby a single COM port could be used by two 
>(or more) applications at the same time.
>
>My desire here is to use a Garmin GPS receiver to feed data to a 
>DeLorme Street Atlas program and at the same time feed the GPS data 
>to a program that would keep the computer (a Dell Latitude laptop) 
>time correct. I have found an inexpensive program that will set the 
>computer's time using GPS data, but it does not share access to the COM port.
>
>As mentioned earlier, I think I saw references to such a sharing 
>program in this SIG some time ago. Does anyone remember that, or 
>know of an inexpensive (preferably free) program? I've found a 
>couple of such programs on the internet, but they are priced at $100 or more.
>
>Thanks in advance for any info.

         I think I had asked about such a thing and came up 
short.  What I ended up doing was using UI-View for APRS and 
configuring it to output GPS data on a different com port.  In 
addition, I had to use a "bridge" to make the com port available to 
my Street Atlas program.

         Today, were I trying to use a GPS with some APRS program, 
and keep the computer time correct, I would use a program to get the 
time from the internet, if that is possible.  In the end, it's a lot simpler.

         7 3
         Earl

KD5XB -- Earl Needham
Clovis, New Mexico DM84jk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cw_bugs
Quoting from the Coast Guard: ZUT