Yes! The desk cost a whopping $35 at a local hotel furniture liquidation store. I custom built the whole top part to fit my scanning needs!
Manny
Final Changes To The Shack!
- Thread starter N1SQB
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Yes! The desk cost a whopping $35 at a local hotel furniture liquidation store. I custom built the whole top part to fit my scanning needs!
Manny
Controlled Chaos! Managed Mayhem!
LOL! The trick is, radio management! I NEVER have all the radios on at once as you see in the picture. I only put on the radios I need for what I want to monitor at the time! If a situation arises, then I turn on and set up additional radios as I need them. Otherwise, it would be chaos in this room! LOL...Seriously though, there was a lot of work and thought that went into the design and installation! The rigrunner made a huge difference though!
Manny
LOL! The trick is, radio management! I NEVER have all the radios on at once as you see in the picture. I only put on the radios I need for what I want to monitor at the time! If a situation arises, then I turn on and set up additional radios as I need them. Otherwise, it would be chaos in this room! LOL...Seriously though, there was a lot of work and thought that went into the design and installation! The rigrunner made a huge difference though!
Manny
CommJunkie
Member
Just my luck. I wanted to buy one :lol:
countryboy14057
Member
What are you using for antennas and do you have any pictures?
ha ha ha Countryboy beat me to it - I was going to ask for a picture or two of the antenna farm that supplies all those radios!!!
Mike
Mike
NWI_Scanner_Guy
SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
Damn, that is one extremely sweet setup you have there Manny!!
Antenna Farm Response!
OK! Here is the answer everyone is looking for! In my location, I live 475 feet above sea level, only a few nautical miles from the water, and have all utilities underground. This makes the "NEED" for an external antenna or antennas, almost non existent and I have almost no intermod or electrical noise to speak of.. That said, each radio has it's own commercial grade antenna ( some high gain ) attached to an L bracket via an NMO mount. There are no splitters or connectors on top of connectors involved here. Each antenna has the right connector for the jack on the radio it is going to. I have no reception problems to speak of in any band and have actually received overload when testing external antennas. Since there is no TX being done here, grounding is not an issue! This works well for me!
OK! Here is the answer everyone is looking for! In my location, I live 475 feet above sea level, only a few nautical miles from the water, and have all utilities underground. This makes the "NEED" for an external antenna or antennas, almost non existent and I have almost no intermod or electrical noise to speak of.. That said, each radio has it's own commercial grade antenna ( some high gain ) attached to an L bracket via an NMO mount. There are no splitters or connectors on top of connectors involved here. Each antenna has the right connector for the jack on the radio it is going to. I have no reception problems to speak of in any band and have actually received overload when testing external antennas. Since there is no TX being done here, grounding is not an issue! This works well for me!
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N8IAA
Member
So, Manny, the 7000 is HF receive only? Nice set up. Sounds like an ideal monitoring location. Really like how you put it together.
Larry
Larry
Yeah, for now it's HF/VHF/UHF Ham receive only! I don't expect to be living at this address too much longer! Daughters ( 3 ) are getting older and need more room. I am keeping everything receive only until we either expand here of move! I'm thinking move at this point!
Manny
Yes, I loved the UHF one so much I got the VHF version! I always prefer making my own radio shelves.
It's not only cheaper, but can be built to suit my needs vs. modifying someone elses design to my equipment.
Manny
You know, after seeing yours and how well it organizes everything I'm kind of drafting up ideas in my head for something like that, maybe a whole desk.
I think it would be nice to sort of "spec out" specific spots for existing equipment/files and what not!
It beats having to modify office furniture.This way you know everything will fit!
Manny
Exactly... Looks like the scanners fit perfectly, it also gives you something to bolt the CDM brackets on to.
I'm running into a little issue with my desk and organization, I've been looking around for ideas on Google and I think I might give this a shot.
I'm running into a little issue with my desk and organization, I've been looking around for ideas on Google and I think I might give this a shot.
You have to get creative! I saw the bottom part of the desk at the hotel liquidation warehouse and just visualized how I wanted it to look like. For $35 it was a no brainier!
Manny
Nice
Shack looks great Manny thanks for sharing. I have said final changes to the shack umm 100 times maybe... HaHa, just kidding...Great collection of radios..
Shack looks great Manny thanks for sharing. I have said final changes to the shack umm 100 times maybe... HaHa, just kidding...Great collection of radios..
emd001
Member
Wow, that is a great looking setup.
Eng3ineer
Member
Manny,
You have a very nice setup and i'm looking into making a similar set-up.
My dad just retired after 50+ plus in the insurance business and his company came in and set-up all new office furniture for the new guy, and told him he could have all the old office furniture, so I ended up with FREE huge combination metal/wood desk i'd say it's a good 3X6 maybe even 3x7.
What depth size did you make the shelf for radio/scanners???
I'm leaning towards 1x12 for my radio/scanners as my top shelf will be wider and used to display couple old Fire Extinguisher's and brass Nozzle's and such.
Jason
You have a very nice setup and i'm looking into making a similar set-up.
My dad just retired after 50+ plus in the insurance business and his company came in and set-up all new office furniture for the new guy, and told him he could have all the old office furniture, so I ended up with FREE huge combination metal/wood desk i'd say it's a good 3X6 maybe even 3x7.
What depth size did you make the shelf for radio/scanners???
I'm leaning towards 1x12 for my radio/scanners as my top shelf will be wider and used to display couple old Fire Extinguisher's and brass Nozzle's and such.
Jason
Love the shack Manny! I have a couple comments and suggestions:
1) Consider a ground plane for the antennas. This should help, although you say your reception is fine without it. Consider a cut steel sheet to for the top of the unit with NMO hole mounts for the antennas. This way you only need a single ground for the whole antenna farm.
2) It is kind of hard to tell from the photo but I assume the radios are set on shelves and not rack-mounted. Have you tried comparing the audio of the scanner directly with it's included speaker vs. the external one? I wonder if the wood shelf makes an effective sounding board with such a tight fit. I wonder also if it would sound better with the internal speaker if the radio was hanging from the top of the within the cubby.
3) Did you install carrier activated lights on these radios? Kind of hard to tell from the photo. I have them on many of my scanners (based on your design) and will be outfitting the rest of mine soon.
4) It looks like you have a switching power supply on the lower left. Have you had any issues with hash from that? I have switching supplies on my set up and no problems have arisen but I have heard others complain about it.
5) What is that device just to the right of the mouse, left of the little portable SW radio, under the IC7000 external monitor?
6) Look at the newer sealed acid or gel batteries and an automatic transfer switch. They are OK to use inside and do not have the fume issue of car batteries. One or two of these should run your radios in RX mode for a day or two.
I will certainly be borrowing some of your design features for my shack when we move to our new home in a year or two!
1) Consider a ground plane for the antennas. This should help, although you say your reception is fine without it. Consider a cut steel sheet to for the top of the unit with NMO hole mounts for the antennas. This way you only need a single ground for the whole antenna farm.
2) It is kind of hard to tell from the photo but I assume the radios are set on shelves and not rack-mounted. Have you tried comparing the audio of the scanner directly with it's included speaker vs. the external one? I wonder if the wood shelf makes an effective sounding board with such a tight fit. I wonder also if it would sound better with the internal speaker if the radio was hanging from the top of the within the cubby.
3) Did you install carrier activated lights on these radios? Kind of hard to tell from the photo. I have them on many of my scanners (based on your design) and will be outfitting the rest of mine soon.
4) It looks like you have a switching power supply on the lower left. Have you had any issues with hash from that? I have switching supplies on my set up and no problems have arisen but I have heard others complain about it.
5) What is that device just to the right of the mouse, left of the little portable SW radio, under the IC7000 external monitor?
6) Look at the newer sealed acid or gel batteries and an automatic transfer switch. They are OK to use inside and do not have the fume issue of car batteries. One or two of these should run your radios in RX mode for a day or two.
I will certainly be borrowing some of your design features for my shack when we move to our new home in a year or two!
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