My oldschool Motorola setup

[Securevoice]

 

[firefighter88]

Very Very Nice where would you find one of those

 

[dispatchgeek]

Love it! I used to run an older Telex console in my shack as well.

 

[kg6nlw]

Very nice!

Regards,

-Frank C.

 

[iMONITOR]

Very Very Nice where would you find one of those

dispatchconsole in Other Two-Way Radio Accessories for sale | eBay

www.ebay.com

 

[millrad]

Is this a ham set up or something other? Professional looking gear, esp the Centracom consolette.

 

[ramal121]

Very Very Nice where would you find one of those

You can still buy 'em new:

CommandPLUS Dispatch Console | Consoles | Radio Dispatch Products | Data & Communications | Products | GAI-Tronics

www.hubbell.com

 

[Securevoice]

I don´t even dare to gues what a new console is gonna cost they don´t dare to list a price on the web either. Even used consoles can be rather expensive depending on how much is included in the selling price. Be aware that it´s not a walk in the park to get it configured and up running with radios. There´s a lot more to it than just to plug in the power cord (which btw often is missing). The consoles are very nice when working as supposed to but the tend to mailfunction when aged due to fault caps. Trouble with sel/unsel audio is just one among a couple known probs. If one can solder SMD go ahead knock your self out plenty of work ahead. I used Spectra radios so there´s some additional 10-12 caps per radio. When done I´ve replaced more than a hundred SMD caps in this specific setup. But still it´s damn nice when working as intended. Life is good!

 

[bob-the-scanner-man]

Aside from the cool factor, are there any practical uses for a console in a ham application?

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Multiple radios not on your desk. That's the real advantage. So if I had a multi-line multi frequency remote at my desk it would look like any of my other phones...but the radios could be in my shed in the backyard. If you only deal with a handful of frequencies which can easily be preprogrammed, it makes a ton of sense actually.

If I had something like a 4 or 8 channel Gai-Tronics console laying around I would totally use it (I just have several Comtegra's).

 

[a417]

Multiple radios not on your desk. That's the real advantage. So if I had a multi-line multi frequency remote at my desk it would look like any of my other phones...but the radios could be in my shed in the backyard. If you only deal with a handful of frequencies which can easily be preprogrammed, it makes a ton of sense actually.

Another huge advantage is you can put the radios closer to the antenna, and shorten the overall RF path. Easier to run console cabling than it is LMR-400, or such.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I honestly wish there was an opensource soft-console out there. I'd finally have something to do with all my surplus TRAs.

 

[kg6nlw]

I second what Project25_MASTR and a417 said, especially the shortening of coax! I know my cable runs thank me for it.

Regards,

-Frank C.

 

[Securevoice]

Another huge advantage is the fact that up till 10 consoles can interconnect. I´m working on a second operator position and the console already installed will be the supervisor console in that configuration. I don´t expect the installation of a slave to be a big deal unless the FW dosn´t support the plan.. The next level after that will be the experiment of connecting a third console via VoIP. If I get it to work the world will be open. I´m looking into different pro VoIP solutions which are being used in systems I know of. Some basic facts I think are missing in this thread is the sound quality of this console it cannot be compared with a basic radio desktop configuration. The console has DSP which makes the user experience way more impressive than anything else I´ve been listening to. Also with the upgraded FW the console has full feature MDC1200 applications such as radio check, radio disable/enable and much much more. The hi/low APB also has a certain cool factor. Oh not to forget the emergency recieve option that´s also quite intertaining the first time.

 

[ElroyJetson]

It's not the console that's hard to find, it's getting the equipment that drives it that can be a real hassle. And the knowledge required to get it all up and running and programmed is getting stale and also hard to find. Oh, it's out there, but you'll pay your dues in between the time where you find a centracom mini console and the time you're actually using it with so much as one radio.

 

[ecollins11]

I like it It's not bad, Not too bad at all!

 

[wa8pyr]

If someone wanted to set something like this up relatively inexpensively, look around for used Zetron Series 4000 consoles; I've seen them going for reasonable prices on eBay and Govdeals. One of the offerings (I think the 4010) is a desktop unit with all the interface hardware built in, so all you need to do is run phone wires (CAT5 works fine) from the radios to the desktop console. Alternatively, a full Series 4000 installation with Common Control would give you loads of flexibility, and it's relatively easy to set up; a typical common control will have a system card, two console cards, and the necessary number of radio interface cards for the number of channels (two radios per card, so the 4008 has four cards, the 4016 has eight cards, etc).

The Series 4000 is programmable so you can define the buttons to do all sorts of stuff, including channel up, channel down, A/B channel, etc etc. Also does paging, which when using a simplex channel (and properly identifying) can be a fun way to entertain yourself on a cold winter day ("let's see, how many different paging tone combinations can I come up with in the next 5 minutes?").

If you wanted to get crazy, go for the Series 4000 touchscreen version. That's where you can really have some fun!

All that being said, though. . . you still have to have some knowledge of this kind of thing to set it up; like the Motorola stuff, it's definitely not plug-and-play.

 

[cmdrwill]

Poor Man's radio console: Barringer Audio mixer........

 

[Securevoice]

Cool stuff will always be hot

 

[rescue161]

I just use a few MC2500 desk sets. They control 4 radios and I can send inhibit/enable MDC commands too. Pretty simple to install and I get patch and simulselect too.