Here are the responses to my query about the W9XT board. A few nay-sayers but overall the impressions seem to stress: simplicity, reliability and no need to diddle with harddrives stuff. As my computer is currently THE computer that my wife and I share for work and play I like the simple aspect. Many thanks to the many who responded. 73 from Dan W8CAR pems_st_dk@noeca.ohio.gov NOTE: Info about the W9XT board is available on his web page at: http://www.qth.com/w9xt Usual disclaimer-no connection to --- ETC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I use one with a 386/20 to a IC 751 or 761 and it works fine-works with NA or CT and the audio is very good(better than the DVP or so I am told) Tim VE6SH ----- Well, I, at KS9K, was one of the beta testers. We use 5 of them at the KS9K contest station. They work GREAT! They don't record RX audio, but for a CONTEST application, it has very use. The W9XT cards are very RELIABLE and always work when you want them to. And they do what you want them to do...call CQ. They have 4 memories, but I seldom use more than 2: CQ and exchange. I fill the other two with my call and a "QSL, QRZ WE9V" message. Chad Kurszewski, WE9V e-mail: Chad_Kurszewski@csg.mot.com The Official "Sultans of Shwing" Web Site: http://www.4w.com/ham/sos ----- I have 5 and use 4 all the time . I have one at ea station. I have 4 positions set up and have been using them for both Phone and CW for several years. KS9K Paul Hellenberg Tru Line Lithograhing Inc. Work 414 554 7300 -125 Fax 414 554 8217 Home 414 554 9170 ----- Forget about the W9XT board and go with the K1EA board. The reason I say that is that with the K1EA board you know the software will ALWAYS support it. I have the K1EA board here and it works great. I sprung for the optional cable as I hate to make cables. Most of the time I end up with rf getting into the cable and I spend months trying to get it out. With the K1EA setup I just plugged it in and away it went. A new company is now making and selling the board and cables. They had an ad in QST or CQ or was it in the NCJ. Also the price has come down from the time I got mine. Never go into a phone contest without it. John - WB8VPA -- That's the best card EVER! It has given me thousands of high rate qsos.... Enjoy! Felipe NP4Z ----- Hi i am using a w9xt board and have limited success with it problems come from programming a keying it from ct9...once programmed from outside of ct it works good EXCEPT you cant hit escape to stop it once the message has started...by the way i built a similar keyer from a qst article and used the chip from it (a 20 sec chip) on the w9xt card (16 sec chip) the dip switches to program it is awkward to use and they are fragile/delicate it does however sound good and does save my voice during a contest ..really shines when the exchange stays the same i.e. no serial numbers....i wouldn't do without it now but it could be improved...hope this helps 73 Jamie WW3S ----- I've used one in several contests, from home and from WD9INF's station. The card is a great investment. It just bangs away, hour after hour after hour.... The only thing to catch on to is recording your messages so that one F-Key buffer doesn't overflow into another, but this is not difficult at all. The bottom line is that the W9XT card sure saves the voice for better things. I highly recommend it. 73, Joe Feustle, N8AAT ----- Dan, I've had the card for going on two years. First time I used it was in SS SSB 1994. Only problem I experienced is RF getting into the voice signal on 80m; no problems with this on 40m and up. Believe the problem is with my station, not the card. Have sent e- mails to W9XT and have received suggestions from him. Have tried torriods on interface cable, but that did not solve. Probably a grounding issue, just haven't figured out the right grounding config yet. Other than that, I'm very happy. Have a few buddies who use a soundblaster configuration; while that is much more versatile, my opinion is that for simplicity, W9XT cant be beat. Just in case your concerned about the 16 seconds total memory being sufficient, it has been no problem for me. I cant remember all the different configurations available, but for SweepStakes, I think I used an 8 second and two four second blocks and had no problems. Good luck and 73 Ed, N3BGV ----- I highly recommend the W9XT Contest Card. I bought a kit when they first became available. I've not had any trouble with it, and completely satisfied with the performance. In fact, I bought a second one at Dayton this past year. I have recommended the Contest Card to others (K5GO, KC8MK, etc.) and nobody has come back to challenge the recommendation. I know KC8MK is happy with his. 73, Dave/K8CC ----- I built one of the original two prototypes of the Contest Card and have been using it ever since. It's been beat up in Field Day several times as well as in many phone and CW tests from home. I have loaned it to friends. I have NEVER had a problem with it. We also use them at the KS9K superstation- no failures. It's an excellent, well designed product, and I particularly like the fact that it uses no interrupts or disk space, unlike the DVP, which is now made offshore. I'm not connected with Gary W9XT or his company, Unified Microsystems, although I did design the printed circuit board for him. Good luck and enjoy! 73, Bruce WW1M Bruce D. Herrick bdh@mixcom.com Home: 414.462.1270 Pryon Corporation Office: 414.253.5678 N93 W14575 Whittaker Way Fax: 414.253.2772 Menomonee Falls, WI 53051 PacketCluster: WW1M > NB9C ----- We use several W9XT boards and like them very much. We started out with external digital recorders, and from time to time experienced RFI problems plus more extra wires and cables which just become another pain at a contest station. Next we switched over to the CT boards, which worked ok, but were really over-kill and complex to use with CT-8 at the time.(loading and unloading TSR's) I had a nice offer from K3LR and sold the board and cable to him and end up buying 3 W9XT boards which we using at the Green Hornet's station for several years. They were bought in kit form, and were easy to put together (Green Hornet assembled them) and worked very well with no problems. Also the cabling you can do yourself and save about $50 for each board. The audio sounds very good and you have four memories with a total of 20 seconds which you can configure with dip switches for number of memories and length of messages without re-opening the computer. With the internal mounted unit there is no rfi and the best thing about the boards is that its configured to be a LPT port #2. Also the W9XT board has a built in keyer interface for positive or negative radio's using the same LPT port freeing up your normal comport which your probably using now for cw! It is an excellent unit and I highly recommend it! 73 Spike W9XR (Curator of the "Green Hornet" W3GH) ----- Hi, Dan. I've been using one of the W9XT contest cards for a couple of years, and it works just fine. The audio isn't anything to write home about, but this is a result of the low sampling rate used and is a common problem with all the digitizing audio memory cards out there. I built mine from the kit and it went together OK. I had some initial problems that turned out to be a defective GAL chip, which Gary replaced quickly. No problems thereafter. Building the interface cable is a real bitch, though. Putting several shielded cables into a 25-pin D Sub shell is a nasty job. And be sure you use a good grade of shielded cable. I used the small microphone cable from Radio Shack. In retrospect, I probably should have used RG-174, which is smaller but does have considerably higher capacitance. If you're relatively short on patience and/or construction skill and relatively long on cash, I believe LTA sells a pre-assembled cable. Also, when you set up the DIP switches for the card address and the memory partitioning, the instruction manual refers to putting the switches in the UP position, which is really DOWN relative to the surface of the PC board. This was a source of confusion until I looked at the schematic and saw what was going on. The card works well and is definitely worth the money. 73... Randy, W8FN W8FN@aol.com ----- I have a W9XT voice keyer and all I can say is, it works great. First time out of the box. The biggest drag is the fact that you must build the interface cables to your radio's mic jack and key jack. If you can get around that small issue, then youre home free. It works great... enough said... Recommended. 73's ... Bob WG9L ----- Hi Dan... Have been using the W9XT board with various versions of NA and it has always worked flawlessly. Started off with an old XT and now have it installed in a 386. I guess the down side of the W9XT board is (unless this feature is undocumented), it doesn't work with CT. Ray - ND8L Poland, Ohio