N9JIG Racks the Shack

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N9JIG

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Thanks Guys! I have actually now disassembled the entire shack and packed it away to put the house on the market in anticipation of moving. It will be reassembled eventually in the new house.

I am stuck with a couple handhelds for a few months, withdrawal is setting in.
 

blantonl

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Thanks Guys! I have actually now disassembled the entire shack and packed it away to put the house on the market in anticipation of moving. It will be reassembled eventually in the new house.

I am stuck with a couple handhelds for a few months, withdrawal is setting in.

Rich, where in Arizona are you headed?

Is this retirement?
 

N9JIG

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In the Surprise/Buckeye/Whitmann area. It will be retirement #2 but I suspect I will work once we get settled, if only to keep out of the wife's hair for a while!
 

N9JIG

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Several of the scanners are used for Fire Toneouts, although when we move to Arizona next month that may become irrelevant since they are all on a trunked system...

Others are dedicated to railroad, aircraft or other services, again that will change next month as well.

When I set up my shack in the new house I may not install all 3 cabinets right away, but it will be simple enough to add in another one.
 

737mech

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PHX setup

I'd imagine with PHX FD and Luke AFB in the area you'll be turning everything on. I'm hoping your elevation is good for the area? Maybe build a mast like prcguy so you can setup at night and not worry about hoa rules during the day? Or build a tower/palm tree like they do here for cell towers?
 

N9JIG

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I already have plans for antennas! I have a large attic that will be chock full of them and plans for a flagpole HF antenna in the front yard. I am also thinking about a couple Vent-tennas and maybe trying to hide something else outside...

We are at a higher elevation so that will help...
 

Colton25

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Sorry for the late post, i'm not sure if you have basically the same setup now at the new house. The way i understand you are using the Stridsberg multi couplers for every piece of equipment you have. Knowing that the bct15x has a BNC connector and most radios that i've seen have a pl-259 connector, what way did you decide to go when purchasing the multi coupler? All i could think is that you purchased it with all ports being BNC and you just used BNC to PL-259 adapters for the radios. I've heard that any adapters will create loss.

For years I have been thinking about racking my shack and I finally got around to doing it. First, the pics:

Overview:

Overview.JPG


Consoles:

All.JPG


Right Rack ("Always On")
BCT15 (3), BCT15X, BCD996XT, BCD536HP, PSR600 (2), HP-1x, Maxtrac

Right.JPG



Center Rack (More Scanners):
Pro197, PSR410, BCT15 (5), BCT15X (2), TMD-700A

Center.JPG


Left Rack (Specialty Radios):
CDM1250-VHF, CDM1250-UHF-R2, IC7000, R8500, CSI PL decoder, Cimarron MDC Decoder

Left.JPG



Inside the Center Rack (showing wire routes):

Inside.JPG



Computer Desk:

Desk.JPG



The racks are from NorthComm (Radio Specific Power Supplies). Marc, the owner, has been working with me on this project and couldn't have been more cooperative. When I found his products I realized this was the way to go. They use Jotto Desk faceplates (http://jottopublicsafety.gojotto.com/console-accessories.html?Attribs=705&catID=278) which makes it simple to move things around.

Each cabinet (from Chief, ERS-10 - 10U Slanted Economy Rack) has an Astron SRM25 25 amp power supply. Each power supply is connected to a PowerPole strip that allows various 12 power devices to be easily connected. (My entire shack uses PowerPole).

The 2 end cabinets also each have an AC power strip to power accessories etc.

The Right and Center have Stridsberg multicouplers, an 8-port in the center cabinet and an 8 port as well as a 4-port 800 MHz. unit in the right cabinet.

The rack on the right is left on 24/7 with some of the radios used for data systems. The Maxtrac is used to decode ATCS and send the data to an aggregater. The PSR600's are used for Pro96Comm. The 4 BCT15's are used for Fire Tone alerting and the other radios are used for local operations.

The rack in the center is used for scanning and searching. One radio each is set up for VHF air, UHF air, Railroads, and fire channels. The others are used for the whims of the day.

The left rack has my CDM's used for work and GMRS stuff. It also has my IC7000 all-band HF rig as well as my R8500 receiver. The R8500 has a pair of decoders, one for PL and the other for MDC.

So far the speakers on the radios have been sufficient, since the rear of the cabinets are open the volume level is fine without external speakers. The 8500 has a speaker on the rack and the Moto's have front firing speakers.

On top of the racks are my portable chargers and handheld collection. I have a few others out in the car and garage.

Computers are an Apple iMac 27 inch i7 with 16GB RAM, and HP i7 Windows 7Pro machine with 9GB RAM and a MS Surface.

The shack has the Wife Seal of Approval for lack of wires and clutter. I still need to get on the floor and clean up the wires under the desk and shelves but that will wait for later... I also ran out of black rack screws so had to use silver ones until the resupply arrives.
 

N9JIG

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All the scanners have BNC connectors so I just use patch cables. The transmitting radios have PL259s and have individual antennas with proper connectors.

Only the scanned are connected to the multicouplers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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