4 PORT COM BOARD - THE SCOOP
9/95 

       Thanks to all who sent me info on the COM boards. So many
asked for info on the responses I decided to post to the reflector.
I guess many are building up their CONTEST (OOps, there it is!) 
stations. 
        A few mentioned buying (2) 2 port com boards that can be 
configured for various IRQ's but all who mentioned owning a Flexport
42 board by Quickpath are extremely happy with them. All hardware
is on 1 board with pig-tails off the board with DB-9's attached so
you only use 1 slot in your CONTEST computer. This is a 16 bit card
so one can use the higher interrupts all the way up to IRQ 15. The
parallel ports have the option of the standard addresses and the 
standard IRQ5 & IRQ7 interrupts (tnx N0DH). It uses buffered 16c552
Uarts.
        I called Quickpath and they said they had them for $120.
I immediately went into my "negotiating mode"! I said, "But a friend
of mine in the midwest told me he got them in a store in San Jose
for around $90". The woman said, "Well that's the price I have to
sell them to you for. Company policy". I said, "How about the name
of a couple of your retailers who are known to give a deal."
She gave me the name of NCA (800-622-1115). I called them and the
line was busy. I called HDSS (800-252-9777) in Newark, Ca. and Joe
said, "I can sell them to you for $98 each". I said, "Yes, but I 
have a dozen friends on the internet who want to know where I will
be getting my boards from". He said, "I sell a lot of these and I
can't do better". End of negotiations! $98 is better than $120.
$44 in my pocket (I bought 2 boards, I know my math!) is better
than in their's. That will pay for a nice prime rib dinner for the
next guy who climbs one of my towers. 
        I hope this helps the many who asked for this inormation.

        73, Jeff Bouvier  k1iu@ids.net