It's been awhile coming but time finally permitted to update the shack located in North Wilmington Delaware.
Radios:
Optocom for conventional and EDACS monitoring
2005 modified to the hilt including the intenal Optoscan456 card. Used for Aero and UHF monitoring
BC785D Federal and local TRS monitoring
BC780 for conventional monitoring VHF mostly
BC250 for general use
Pro2026 is for data decoding (4 level slicer installed)
Sony 2010 for SWL
996 mostly for trunking and federal
396 when not on the road monitors WIlmington City and the state TRS.
EF Johnson Viking 8585 for monitoring Chester Counties Multinet-II system
Moto HT1250 UHF is not used for monitoring, just for my side jobs communication needs.
Outdoor Antennas:
506 10dB Yagi (on a rotor)
866 13db Yagi (On a rotor)
860 10dB Yagi
164Mhz 6dB Yagi (On a rotor)
Neveda Multiband (hidden behind chimney in pix)
Diamond 130 VHF Discone
Indoor antennas
412 6dB Yagi (on rotor)
935 12dB Yagi (on rotor)
460Mhz 6dB groundplane
RS Discone cut for UHF Mil-Air band sand tacked to the peak of the roof
70' horizontal dipole along the attic peak NW/SE orientation for HF utility monitoring
4 digital rotor controllers are located below the main monitor.
Cable:
Belden 9913F7 and LMR400 on roof antennas.
Belden 1694A on the indoor antennas
Radio Software:
Yes, most of them.
A unique feature is my antenna patch bay which is actually a video patch bay
which all radios and antennas run thru. I lose about 1dB @ 800Mhz thru it.
It is located in the open cabinet next to the white PC tower. All radios have a "Normalled"
antenna connection but with the use of a cord I can route any antenna to any radio quickly.
I also have antenna combiners, splitters and a Grove preamp that may be patched in as needed.
this also provides patching to 2 other rooms in the house which have a BNC wall plate by the preffered TV viewing positions.
My monitoring radius is about 50 miles which provides more than I can listen to from my 270' altitude.
For PC's I run an XPS420 with XP for controlling / programming most of the uniden radios voa a serial card.
The older Dell 8200 runs W2000 for the PRO2005, Optocom software packages.
The very old Dell G1 by the patch bay takes care of digital decoding from the 2026 and 780.
All radios are powered by a PowerOne PSU providing all of the voltages I need and auto cut over to the batteries described below.
I have a back up power system consisting of dual deep cycle marine cells for the radios and a large UPS for the PC's.
The grounding system is elaborate.
Each outdoor antenna has a 6AWG dedicated conductor bonded to it terminating in a block going to a 1/O downfeed to a star grounding system buried in the backyard.
Every radio, PC, indoor antenna and patch bay point also is grounded thru individual conductors terminating to a block on the back of the desk then to a 6 awg main feed out to the star ground.
This feed runs down into the crawl space where it has 3' deep grounding rods sunk every 6' until exiting the house. These rods even have a "watering system" consisting of timed aquarium pumps the keep the impedance to earth at a reasonably low level.
In the works is a remotely controlled 996 at my place of employment which will allow for more consistent reception of the Philadelphia city TRS. Just working on the audio streaming with my friendly IT manager.
Modification of the rotor controllers to be software driven from the Dell 8200 is being figured out.
Active processing and mixing of all of the radio audio outputs is also on the short list (just need the time to set it up and tune it and wire it to 3 new speakers) also along with an easy to use recording matrix from the same system going to 8 inputs on the XPS420.
Dave
Radios:
Optocom for conventional and EDACS monitoring
2005 modified to the hilt including the intenal Optoscan456 card. Used for Aero and UHF monitoring
BC785D Federal and local TRS monitoring
BC780 for conventional monitoring VHF mostly
BC250 for general use
Pro2026 is for data decoding (4 level slicer installed)
Sony 2010 for SWL
996 mostly for trunking and federal
396 when not on the road monitors WIlmington City and the state TRS.
EF Johnson Viking 8585 for monitoring Chester Counties Multinet-II system
Moto HT1250 UHF is not used for monitoring, just for my side jobs communication needs.
Outdoor Antennas:
506 10dB Yagi (on a rotor)
866 13db Yagi (On a rotor)
860 10dB Yagi
164Mhz 6dB Yagi (On a rotor)
Neveda Multiband (hidden behind chimney in pix)
Diamond 130 VHF Discone
Indoor antennas
412 6dB Yagi (on rotor)
935 12dB Yagi (on rotor)
460Mhz 6dB groundplane
RS Discone cut for UHF Mil-Air band sand tacked to the peak of the roof
70' horizontal dipole along the attic peak NW/SE orientation for HF utility monitoring
4 digital rotor controllers are located below the main monitor.
Cable:
Belden 9913F7 and LMR400 on roof antennas.
Belden 1694A on the indoor antennas
Radio Software:
Yes, most of them.
A unique feature is my antenna patch bay which is actually a video patch bay
which all radios and antennas run thru. I lose about 1dB @ 800Mhz thru it.
It is located in the open cabinet next to the white PC tower. All radios have a "Normalled"
antenna connection but with the use of a cord I can route any antenna to any radio quickly.
I also have antenna combiners, splitters and a Grove preamp that may be patched in as needed.
this also provides patching to 2 other rooms in the house which have a BNC wall plate by the preffered TV viewing positions.
My monitoring radius is about 50 miles which provides more than I can listen to from my 270' altitude.
For PC's I run an XPS420 with XP for controlling / programming most of the uniden radios voa a serial card.
The older Dell 8200 runs W2000 for the PRO2005, Optocom software packages.
The very old Dell G1 by the patch bay takes care of digital decoding from the 2026 and 780.
All radios are powered by a PowerOne PSU providing all of the voltages I need and auto cut over to the batteries described below.
I have a back up power system consisting of dual deep cycle marine cells for the radios and a large UPS for the PC's.
The grounding system is elaborate.
Each outdoor antenna has a 6AWG dedicated conductor bonded to it terminating in a block going to a 1/O downfeed to a star grounding system buried in the backyard.
Every radio, PC, indoor antenna and patch bay point also is grounded thru individual conductors terminating to a block on the back of the desk then to a 6 awg main feed out to the star ground.
This feed runs down into the crawl space where it has 3' deep grounding rods sunk every 6' until exiting the house. These rods even have a "watering system" consisting of timed aquarium pumps the keep the impedance to earth at a reasonably low level.
In the works is a remotely controlled 996 at my place of employment which will allow for more consistent reception of the Philadelphia city TRS. Just working on the audio streaming with my friendly IT manager.
Modification of the rotor controllers to be software driven from the Dell 8200 is being figured out.
Active processing and mixing of all of the radio audio outputs is also on the short list (just need the time to set it up and tune it and wire it to 3 new speakers) also along with an easy to use recording matrix from the same system going to 8 inputs on the XPS420.
Dave
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