For the last year or so I have used a Husky (HomeDepot) worktable for my radios. It works great and I am very happy with it. The only problem is that I like the SecretLab Magnus ProXL better. It is like getting a chance with the prom queen when you are happy with her not quite as hot little sister.
The Husky table is 62” wide, has casters and is plenty sturdy for a heavy radio cabinet, computer and other stuff in the shack. It has a hand crank to raise and lower it. The black matches my aesthetic, and it has served me very well. It just isn’t as sexy as my SecretLab computer desk. It also a little bit smaller.
About that SecretLab desk. The full name is the Magnus ProXL. This is an all-steel desk (except for a wooden core under a steel desktop surface) with fantastic built-in wire management and has an entire ecosystem that rivals even Apple. There are various accessories like monitor arms, magnetic wire holders and sheaths and CPU brackets.
So here is a little back story. When we last spoke, I was using a reduced number of radios in my 10u vertical cabinet. It was fine, but I really preferred my old 3-bay/4u horizontal cabinet with a slanted face. It allows the radios to be at a better viewing angle and offers more room to hide things that do not need to be exposed. I have used it before, and it could use a coat of paint, but it is functional and sturdy.
In addition to this (or more correctly because of it) it was better to use the horizontal cabinet with my new multicoupler I put together this month. It is built on a rack shelf and mounted to the rear of the cabinet. The horizontal case allowed for more room to place the multicoupler where it was most efficient. It also nicely allowed to add (or more accurately, return) a couple scanners. Now that my Railroad Astro Spectra is temporally out of service on account of a damaged antenna connector I can use one of these to monitor my local Road channel, the other will monitor the local airport Unicom channel.
This cabinet itself is 60” wide, which left me one inch on each side of the Husky table. The Magnus ProXL is 72” wide, which leaves me six inches on each side. This works well for me as it provides a conveniently perfect spot for the computer speakers. The depth is also a few inches bigger on the SecretLab desk, that turned out to be pretty important for me. I gained an additional 3 inches of usable depth. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really does make a difference.
I have experience with the SecretLab desk. I have had one for my computer desk for over two years replacing my Uplift L-Shaped desk that I gave to the kid when we shared the office space. He needed the extra room more than I at the time. He took it with him when they moved last year, and I bought the Husky.
After 2 years I still love my SecretLab desk. It has always worked just fine; the wire management is second to none and it looks just so darned cool. Even the wife likes it, and she never likes my stuff.
I ordered it online on Tuesday; it arrived Friday afternoon. I assembled it within an hour. The hardest part was shuffling the larger (of two) boxes it arrived in, it was heavy, about 150 pounds, as well as bulky. The FedEx guy had a fun time toting it to my door, but he is a lot younger and half my weight. He offered to bring it inside for me, but I told him I could handle it. I now wish I took him up on the offer. It took me longer to cut up the boxes and foam for recycling on Saturday than it took to assemble the darn thing.
Once I got it in the only tool, I needed that wasn’t provided was a razor knife. The desk came with a neat Allen wrench driver that fit the two different size cap screws it uses. The assembly was pretty simple, and the directions were awesome. Put the desktop on the floor (on top of the provided foam sheet for protection). Pop the motorized legs into their slots and tighten the screws. Then install the tray and the hinged cover, then the feet. Flip it over and install the full desk mat. Plug it in and turn it on. That’s it.
Over the last couple days, I had assembled the rack case. After a net on Wednesday, I disconnected everything in the old cabinet in the office and bright all the toys into the workshop for installation in the new (old) cabinet. I put the cabinet on my wheel cart; it allows me to wheel it around and work on the front or rear as needed. I installed the radios etc. as I saw fit, then swung it around and started the wiring process. I began with the antenna leads.
I had purchased a bunch of new cables as the new multicoupler has SMA connections on the splitter. Since the SMA connectors on the multicoupler are really close together it is a little difficult to add a connector that is between two others, so I had to work from the middle out. I gave each one a slight torque with a wrench, SMA’s are a little fickle that way. I also used right-angle adapters to keep the wires from sticking out the rear.
Next, I did the USB cables to the USB hub. With 8 installed scanners plus a pair of handhelds, a pair of Icoms and an SDR I pretty well filled up my 13-port USB hub. After that was the power cables. The 50-amp Astron handles all the radios, it runs to a PowerPoles strip, and I have all the cables needed for that. There are a couple wall-warts for stuff that doesn’t run on 12V and then a couple power cords for the computer and monitor. All the AC cords go to an outlet strip in the wire tray.
One of the neat things about the SecretLab Magnus ProXL desk is the CPU holder. It mounts under the desk on one of the legs (you can put it on either leg). This gets the CPU off the desktop, saving precious real estate. It is a lot better than putting it on the floor where it would get beat up by the Roomba or kicked by me. It also allows it to have stationary wires as it becomes part of the unit.
The ”Desk as a Unit” theme has been one of my “things” for a while. I try to keep everything integrated so that it all moves as a single unit. This allows me to disconnect a couple wires and move the whole shebang out of the room as needed. For routing maintenance or to change out a component I can just swing the desk out and get at everything in the rear easily.
From the antenna patch panel on my wall, I have the various coax connections to the radios in the cabinet. There is a slot on either edge of the wire tray for cables to go in and out of the desk. I have them bundled as a whip to keep things nice and neat.
Since the cabinet was already prebuilt in the shop, I just wheeled it into the office. I raised the desk to match the height of the wheel cart and slid the thing onto the desktop. 15 minutes of connecting the cables I had prearranged over the last couple days, and I was all done.
The radio desk sits just to the left of my computer desk on the adjoining wall. This allows me to rotate my chair from the computer desk to the radio desk easily. In between them I have a corner-style printer stand I use for stuff like my document scanner, handhelds and accessories.
The AudioRax cabinet has 3 4u bays. The far-left bay has the power supply and my D578 DMR dual-bander. There is a blank panel, behind which sites the base unit for my IC-7100 and the auto-tuner. In the center bay are my 2 SDS200’s, a BCD996P2 and BCD996XT. Behind them are the PowerPoles strip and USB hub. In the right bay are my 4 BCD536HP’s and a 1u blank panel with a front-facing USB port. Behind this is the home-built 16-port multicoupler that I made this month, see Scanner Tales: Rolling my own (Multicoupler, that is) for details.
Most of the stuff for this build (other than the desk of course) I had on hand. I only had to buy a few new SMA antenna cables and a 2u blank panel.
The cabinet allows me to make a mullet out of my radios, all business up front and a party out back. From the rear it looks like kind of a mess with all the wires but it is hidden from view, that is where the mess should be.
Oh, I almost forgot the pictures!
Here is the overall shot. The computer desk is on the right and the radio desk on the left. I have 2 50" TV's, both have AppleTV devices, are Roku enabled and the left one has my GeoChron on it. I use them mostly for watching streams of airports or railroads, like the Flagstaff camera on the right screen. I am standing right at the front of my LazyBoy where I can relax and watch the streams and listed to the radios.
Here is the radio desk. The CPU for the Windows computer is slung underneath on the left side.
Radios include 2 SDS200's, 4 BCD536HP's, a BCD996P2 and a 996XT, an Icom R8600, Icom IC-7100 and an SDS100 as well as an Anytone D578UV-III+. The power supply is an Astron 50A unit with volt and amp metering.
Here is my computer desk. It has my 2025 M4Max Mac Studio, and a Samsung Odyssey G9 49" UltraWide monitor. The UPS is in a CPU mount under the desk. The chair is from LF Gaming, the LFG EXtreme Gaming Chair. I also have a Herman Miller Aeron that I swap out here occasionally.
P.S.: You may have picked up on the fact that much of my non-radio stuff is geared toward gaming (computers, monitors, desks, chair). Well, I am NOT a gamer, not in the least. My step son is, and we influence each other greatly. He is an IT professional and helped me build my PC, which, while designed to be able to handle even the most intensive games, is used mostly for radio stuff these days. It was my daily driver for a couple years as I wanted to see if Windows 11 was up to the task. It has 64GB of RAM, 8TB of SSD storage, a Ryzen 7-7800x3d processor and an Aorus Elite mobo. While it worked fine for radio stuff and my daily activity I really missed my Mac so I bought the studio earlier this year. The Studio also has 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage.
The chair was purchased at the urging of the kid too, he has had one for years and loves it and I borrowed it from time to time and liked it so got my own.
The desks are also geared toward gaming.. The nice thing about gaming is that if you design for it it should handle pretty much anything else mere mortals can throw at it.
The Husky table is 62” wide, has casters and is plenty sturdy for a heavy radio cabinet, computer and other stuff in the shack. It has a hand crank to raise and lower it. The black matches my aesthetic, and it has served me very well. It just isn’t as sexy as my SecretLab computer desk. It also a little bit smaller.
About that SecretLab desk. The full name is the Magnus ProXL. This is an all-steel desk (except for a wooden core under a steel desktop surface) with fantastic built-in wire management and has an entire ecosystem that rivals even Apple. There are various accessories like monitor arms, magnetic wire holders and sheaths and CPU brackets.
So here is a little back story. When we last spoke, I was using a reduced number of radios in my 10u vertical cabinet. It was fine, but I really preferred my old 3-bay/4u horizontal cabinet with a slanted face. It allows the radios to be at a better viewing angle and offers more room to hide things that do not need to be exposed. I have used it before, and it could use a coat of paint, but it is functional and sturdy.
In addition to this (or more correctly because of it) it was better to use the horizontal cabinet with my new multicoupler I put together this month. It is built on a rack shelf and mounted to the rear of the cabinet. The horizontal case allowed for more room to place the multicoupler where it was most efficient. It also nicely allowed to add (or more accurately, return) a couple scanners. Now that my Railroad Astro Spectra is temporally out of service on account of a damaged antenna connector I can use one of these to monitor my local Road channel, the other will monitor the local airport Unicom channel.
This cabinet itself is 60” wide, which left me one inch on each side of the Husky table. The Magnus ProXL is 72” wide, which leaves me six inches on each side. This works well for me as it provides a conveniently perfect spot for the computer speakers. The depth is also a few inches bigger on the SecretLab desk, that turned out to be pretty important for me. I gained an additional 3 inches of usable depth. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really does make a difference.
I have experience with the SecretLab desk. I have had one for my computer desk for over two years replacing my Uplift L-Shaped desk that I gave to the kid when we shared the office space. He needed the extra room more than I at the time. He took it with him when they moved last year, and I bought the Husky.
After 2 years I still love my SecretLab desk. It has always worked just fine; the wire management is second to none and it looks just so darned cool. Even the wife likes it, and she never likes my stuff.
I ordered it online on Tuesday; it arrived Friday afternoon. I assembled it within an hour. The hardest part was shuffling the larger (of two) boxes it arrived in, it was heavy, about 150 pounds, as well as bulky. The FedEx guy had a fun time toting it to my door, but he is a lot younger and half my weight. He offered to bring it inside for me, but I told him I could handle it. I now wish I took him up on the offer. It took me longer to cut up the boxes and foam for recycling on Saturday than it took to assemble the darn thing.
Once I got it in the only tool, I needed that wasn’t provided was a razor knife. The desk came with a neat Allen wrench driver that fit the two different size cap screws it uses. The assembly was pretty simple, and the directions were awesome. Put the desktop on the floor (on top of the provided foam sheet for protection). Pop the motorized legs into their slots and tighten the screws. Then install the tray and the hinged cover, then the feet. Flip it over and install the full desk mat. Plug it in and turn it on. That’s it.
Over the last couple days, I had assembled the rack case. After a net on Wednesday, I disconnected everything in the old cabinet in the office and bright all the toys into the workshop for installation in the new (old) cabinet. I put the cabinet on my wheel cart; it allows me to wheel it around and work on the front or rear as needed. I installed the radios etc. as I saw fit, then swung it around and started the wiring process. I began with the antenna leads.
I had purchased a bunch of new cables as the new multicoupler has SMA connections on the splitter. Since the SMA connectors on the multicoupler are really close together it is a little difficult to add a connector that is between two others, so I had to work from the middle out. I gave each one a slight torque with a wrench, SMA’s are a little fickle that way. I also used right-angle adapters to keep the wires from sticking out the rear.
Next, I did the USB cables to the USB hub. With 8 installed scanners plus a pair of handhelds, a pair of Icoms and an SDR I pretty well filled up my 13-port USB hub. After that was the power cables. The 50-amp Astron handles all the radios, it runs to a PowerPoles strip, and I have all the cables needed for that. There are a couple wall-warts for stuff that doesn’t run on 12V and then a couple power cords for the computer and monitor. All the AC cords go to an outlet strip in the wire tray.
One of the neat things about the SecretLab Magnus ProXL desk is the CPU holder. It mounts under the desk on one of the legs (you can put it on either leg). This gets the CPU off the desktop, saving precious real estate. It is a lot better than putting it on the floor where it would get beat up by the Roomba or kicked by me. It also allows it to have stationary wires as it becomes part of the unit.
The ”Desk as a Unit” theme has been one of my “things” for a while. I try to keep everything integrated so that it all moves as a single unit. This allows me to disconnect a couple wires and move the whole shebang out of the room as needed. For routing maintenance or to change out a component I can just swing the desk out and get at everything in the rear easily.
From the antenna patch panel on my wall, I have the various coax connections to the radios in the cabinet. There is a slot on either edge of the wire tray for cables to go in and out of the desk. I have them bundled as a whip to keep things nice and neat.
Since the cabinet was already prebuilt in the shop, I just wheeled it into the office. I raised the desk to match the height of the wheel cart and slid the thing onto the desktop. 15 minutes of connecting the cables I had prearranged over the last couple days, and I was all done.
The radio desk sits just to the left of my computer desk on the adjoining wall. This allows me to rotate my chair from the computer desk to the radio desk easily. In between them I have a corner-style printer stand I use for stuff like my document scanner, handhelds and accessories.
The AudioRax cabinet has 3 4u bays. The far-left bay has the power supply and my D578 DMR dual-bander. There is a blank panel, behind which sites the base unit for my IC-7100 and the auto-tuner. In the center bay are my 2 SDS200’s, a BCD996P2 and BCD996XT. Behind them are the PowerPoles strip and USB hub. In the right bay are my 4 BCD536HP’s and a 1u blank panel with a front-facing USB port. Behind this is the home-built 16-port multicoupler that I made this month, see Scanner Tales: Rolling my own (Multicoupler, that is) for details.
Most of the stuff for this build (other than the desk of course) I had on hand. I only had to buy a few new SMA antenna cables and a 2u blank panel.
The cabinet allows me to make a mullet out of my radios, all business up front and a party out back. From the rear it looks like kind of a mess with all the wires but it is hidden from view, that is where the mess should be.
Oh, I almost forgot the pictures!
Here is the overall shot. The computer desk is on the right and the radio desk on the left. I have 2 50" TV's, both have AppleTV devices, are Roku enabled and the left one has my GeoChron on it. I use them mostly for watching streams of airports or railroads, like the Flagstaff camera on the right screen. I am standing right at the front of my LazyBoy where I can relax and watch the streams and listed to the radios.
Here is the radio desk. The CPU for the Windows computer is slung underneath on the left side.
Radios include 2 SDS200's, 4 BCD536HP's, a BCD996P2 and a 996XT, an Icom R8600, Icom IC-7100 and an SDS100 as well as an Anytone D578UV-III+. The power supply is an Astron 50A unit with volt and amp metering.
Here is my computer desk. It has my 2025 M4Max Mac Studio, and a Samsung Odyssey G9 49" UltraWide monitor. The UPS is in a CPU mount under the desk. The chair is from LF Gaming, the LFG EXtreme Gaming Chair. I also have a Herman Miller Aeron that I swap out here occasionally.
P.S.: You may have picked up on the fact that much of my non-radio stuff is geared toward gaming (computers, monitors, desks, chair). Well, I am NOT a gamer, not in the least. My step son is, and we influence each other greatly. He is an IT professional and helped me build my PC, which, while designed to be able to handle even the most intensive games, is used mostly for radio stuff these days. It was my daily driver for a couple years as I wanted to see if Windows 11 was up to the task. It has 64GB of RAM, 8TB of SSD storage, a Ryzen 7-7800x3d processor and an Aorus Elite mobo. While it worked fine for radio stuff and my daily activity I really missed my Mac so I bought the studio earlier this year. The Studio also has 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage.
The chair was purchased at the urging of the kid too, he has had one for years and loves it and I borrowed it from time to time and liked it so got my own.
The desks are also geared toward gaming.. The nice thing about gaming is that if you design for it it should handle pretty much anything else mere mortals can throw at it.
