N9JIG Quarantine Radio Cabinet clean up

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N9JIG

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With being pretty much stuck at home lately I decided to clean up the Radio Cabinet. I cleaned up of some of the interior rats nest of wires and dusted it out. There was a good reason why I have not included pictures of the interior of the cabinet, it was pretty messy! It reminded me of the closet of some neat-freak's house where they stashed all the junk and it comes crashing down when you open the door.

Anyway, I digress...

Since the last video and set of pictures I rearranged it a little and cleaned up the USB and antenna cables. By using slightly longer jumpers from the multicouplers to the radios I was able to route them neatly. I also bundled up the USB cables going to the hubs and cable-managed things better.

I posted a video of the cabinet at

Inside the cabinet is an AirNav RadarBox, 4 Stridsberg active multicouplers, 3 USB hubs and other supporting equipment as well as my home networking stuff.

There are a couple wire bundles snaking out the rear and enough tail was left to allow me to swing the cabinet out on its casters for maintenance. I can also quickly disconnect the whole thing and remove it entirely from the room like we did a few months back for painting.

Here is the front of the cabinet. Not much has changed other than the layout. Here is the radio list from top to bottom:
  • 8 BCT15
  • 4 BCT15X
  • 4 BCD996XT
  • Icom R8500 on a NovexComm rack
  • Kenwood TK880 | TYT MD-9600
  • Icom IC-746 Pro on a NovexComm rack
  • Kenwood TM-D700 | CSI CD-1 (Connected to the R8500)
  • 4 PSR600
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I am finally happy enough with the inside wiring to share pictures of the inside. It was way too messy for me to share in the past!
While the lighting is not ideal there is plenty for when I need to work on it. I have a couple battery powered work lights that have magnetic bases that work great for this purpose.

On the left are 3 of the Stridsberg multicouplers. The 4-port takes the best of my scanner antennas (an ST-2 in the attic) and splits it to the 3 other multicouplers (the two 8-ports shown here and another 4-port below). The last port then goes straight to the R8500.

Below the multicouplers is a similar arrangement for the USB cables. There is a pair of 13-port hubs, each connected to the radios on that side of the cabinet. They go to the central 7-port hub which also serves the RadarBox and cables to other radios. This allows me to have a single 25 foot USB cable going to the desk. Each radio is labeled with the comm port. All of the Uniden scanners have modified USB-1 cables with DB-9 plugs replacing the front port connector. These are more secure and keep the wires to the rear of the radios.

On the right side of the interior is a PowerPole panel connected to the 25 amp Astron power supply. There is also a long AC power strip. All of the radios except the 746 are connected tot he Astron and can thus be turned off with one switch.

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Here is the lower half of the cabinet interior. While hard to see there are the 4 PSR600's and the home networking stuff (Modem, switch, gateway, UPS)

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PrivatelyJeff

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I did something similar but on a MUCH smaller scale for my feed scanners. Mine’s just 4 scanners though, with a multicoupler stuck to the side and a mini pc that runs off 12v. The whole thing can run off a car battery if needed.
 

JimD56

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Rich, First off a very Happy Easter to you. In regards to the rack mounting of your 15X's or any other standard Uniden Din Size scanner, (996's). Where did you get the standard 19" rack plate? I'm speaking of the trim piece that secures to the rack edge, and with holes already cut out, then I can just drop the Jotto Desk faceplate into the hole. I was previously using a guy out of Canada, too expensive, so I am trying to go USA.
 

N9JIG

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I got them from NorthComm in NYC about 7 years ago or so. They were not cheap but fit the bill perfectly.

I don't know what these pieces go for separately as I bought them with a package including the faceplates, power supplies and cabinets.

 

N9JIG

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Those were the NovaCom racks for the Icoms. The NorthComm rack panels are the ones for the scanners.
 
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