February 2021 N9JIG Shack with video

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N9JIG

Sheriff
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I know, I know! I moved it around AGAIN. My wife preferred her desk to be elsewhere and she likes having the recliner so she can sit with me in the office and watch TV. Usually however she ends up watching trains go by instead and plays with her iPad in between them. I will make a railfan out of her yet!

I created a quick video of the shack/ManCave as it is today at

Most of the equipment remains the same with the addition of the new clock, desk rack and some relocations.


Above is the main desk and view forward. I have a pair of 55 inch screens to watch railfan cameras, Netflix, news etc. Also on the forward wall is the big red clock that used to be on the radio cabinet.

The desk is the L-shaped Uplift standing desk which allows me to work standing or sitting. Being that it is on casters I can move it to access the rear to work on things as needed.

The main computer is a 2018 MacMini, 32GB RAM, 2 TB SSD with 2 32-inch HD monitors. I occasionally add a third identical monitor but right now I am OK with 2.


Above is the radio stuff. On the left (on the Uplift desk) is the Mini Cabinet (See The Desk Rack of 2021). This has a pair of 536's, a pair of 996XT's, an HP2 and HP1, SDS200, SDS100 and several other HH scanners. All of these are served by a Stridsberg multicoupler.

The big cabinet has:
8 BCT15
4 BCT15X
4 BCD996XT
4 PSR600
R8500
IC-746Pro
KW TK-880
KW TM-D700A
TYT MD8600
4 Stridsberg multicouplers.

The radios are programmed and controlled from the Intel Hades Canyon NUC (32GB RAM, i7 processor, 2 TB SSD) on the rear desk. Control and logging is usually done with ProScan while programming is usually done by ARC-15 or ARC-XT. I also run PRO96Com as well as my AirNav RadarBox from this computer, usually all at the same time.

In the attic are 4 ST2's, some ST-3's, a D130NJ Discone, some dipoles, a couple Diamond dual banders along with a batch of other stuff, all going to the patch panel behind the cabinet:
 

durango5550

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and my wife thinks I'm bad moving my stuff around all the time. LOL

Looks great as usual Rich.

****grumbles to himself..... Now i need to work on my wire management.... thanks a lot Rich****
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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A couple questions that have been poised:

The antennas in the attic: How are they mounted and what about pics?
The ST-2's are pretty much just sitting on top of the rafters, mostly vertically since they are so large, the space available for them precluded perfectly vertical setup. The VHF/UHF dualbanders and the GMRS verticals are mounted to vertical joists and the dipoles are stapled to rafters. Some antennas (Discones, ST3's) are string mounted, hanging off screws in the rafters.

What are the numbers next to the scanners?
Those are the com port assignments for the radio (actually the USB-1 cable attached to it). Since these are fungible depending on the USB port they are plugged into I have to be careful when working so that they do not get plugged into a different port lest the com port number change. All the cables go to a pair of 13-port USB hubs, they go into a master hub and a single USB cable attaches that to the Intel HC NUC. I have the cables all labeled with the assigned serial port number and color coded to ensure that I remember the proper port. If I happen to plug something into the wrong USB port then all the serial port numbers get changed and then I have to rebuild all the Pro-Scan or ARC-xx assignments.
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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While, this chapter has closed, and we are on to the next.

Here is the cabinet as it stands today:

07022021.jpg

The next phase is the Tri-Bay Rack, coming up soon!
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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No, I pulled the listing and will use some of the radios for the new shack and repurpose the big cabinet. I will likely clear out the unused radios once the new shack is up and running.
 

buddrousa

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Rich your awesome keep up the good work but I am content with my setup. What I am working on now is 2 3 and 4 scanner setups with mini PC's setup in other towns feeding me remotely on a PC full of remote PROSCAN CLIENTS that I still can remote into and make changes.
 
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