Correct.
I was seriously tempted to set one in the EOC to Zulu time just to mess with the director (who despite his years working as a PO using 24-hour time insists on it being set to 12-hour time, even though 24-hour is standard for the county).
The (almost) all new for 2022 N9JIG Shack
- Thread starter N9JIG
- Start date
- Status
Correct.
I was seriously tempted to set one in the EOC to Zulu time just to mess with the director (who despite his years working as a PO using 24-hour time insists on it being set to 12-hour time, even though 24-hour is standard for the county).
I have the same issue with the TV's in my office. I have 3 55" TV's in here, one for the security camera system and 2 for news/Virtual Railfan or other live-cams. All are 3 different brands (LG, HiSense and Viseo) but they all come on and off with the same remote code. When I use one of the remotes to do something like change an input or try to use one of the Start features it wonks up one of the others. I have pretty much solved that by using AppleTV boxes for the content. I have to block the two entertainment ones if I just want to turn on the camera one and vice-versa.
I suspect they all use the same boards and panels and just rebrand them with their own plastic.
So this happened last night:
I was doing some tweaking (as I always do) and moved the desk out from the way to get in back. When I was done I rolled it back into place. With the "L"-shaped desk there is a pair of feet on the two ends and a single foot in the back corner. The caster on the rear corner foot broke clean off and the rear of the desk collapsed. Thankfully the leg hit the tile and stayed secure.
I was able to lift the desk and put a file cabinet under the corner to assess the damage. I eventually realized that I would have to clear off the entire contents and flip the desk over to extract the remnants of the caster bolt. The wife and I did so and after a half hour os so we had all the wiring and accessories removed and sorted. Remember each radio has audio, serial, power and antenna leads at a minimum, don't get me started on all the stuff for the two computers...
The son and I picked up and removed the radio rack (surprisingly light...), flipped the desk over, extracted the bolt and retapped the threads on the leg. We also discovered that one of the other caster bolts was bent and would probably have broken soon as well.
I have to regress a little at this point:
I had often thought about removing the casters and replacing them with the round lower-profile feet that came with the desk. (The casters were an extra-cost option.) The casters add almost 3 inches to the height of the desktop and that is slightly too high for comfortable keyboarding and viewing of monitors on top of the cabinet. I just had forgotten to do this the last time I cleared off the desk.
Anyway, I installed the feet, we flipped the desk over and I rebuilt the shack, this time with all three monitors in top of the radio cabinet as I originally intended. The heights work out well and so far I am liking the results. I just have to teak a few things; I forgot a USB cable for the SDS200, need some longer audio cables for the mixer and a few other minor items.
I am now looking for some lower profile ball casters to replace the industrial wheel ones that came with the desk. The nylon feet move OK but not nearly as easy as the casters did. The old ones were of the typical offset-wheel style and are inherently less stable and prone to stress cracking of the single 5/8 inch stud.
I was doing some tweaking (as I always do) and moved the desk out from the way to get in back. When I was done I rolled it back into place. With the "L"-shaped desk there is a pair of feet on the two ends and a single foot in the back corner. The caster on the rear corner foot broke clean off and the rear of the desk collapsed. Thankfully the leg hit the tile and stayed secure.
I was able to lift the desk and put a file cabinet under the corner to assess the damage. I eventually realized that I would have to clear off the entire contents and flip the desk over to extract the remnants of the caster bolt. The wife and I did so and after a half hour os so we had all the wiring and accessories removed and sorted. Remember each radio has audio, serial, power and antenna leads at a minimum, don't get me started on all the stuff for the two computers...
The son and I picked up and removed the radio rack (surprisingly light...), flipped the desk over, extracted the bolt and retapped the threads on the leg. We also discovered that one of the other caster bolts was bent and would probably have broken soon as well.
I have to regress a little at this point:
I had often thought about removing the casters and replacing them with the round lower-profile feet that came with the desk. (The casters were an extra-cost option.) The casters add almost 3 inches to the height of the desktop and that is slightly too high for comfortable keyboarding and viewing of monitors on top of the cabinet. I just had forgotten to do this the last time I cleared off the desk.
Anyway, I installed the feet, we flipped the desk over and I rebuilt the shack, this time with all three monitors in top of the radio cabinet as I originally intended. The heights work out well and so far I am liking the results. I just have to teak a few things; I forgot a USB cable for the SDS200, need some longer audio cables for the mixer and a few other minor items.
I am now looking for some lower profile ball casters to replace the industrial wheel ones that came with the desk. The nylon feet move OK but not nearly as easy as the casters did. The old ones were of the typical offset-wheel style and are inherently less stable and prone to stress cracking of the single 5/8 inch stud.
I haven’t personally used them yet, but I found ball bearing rollers at harbor freight (1 in. Roller Ball Bearing) that may meet your need. I’ve been thinking of putting them under my desk as well.
That style would be perfect except that my desk has a threaded receiver. I need casters with the proper sized stud. My problem is that the casters with the threaded studs are almost always offset somewhat, this causes extra stress. If the threaded stud was centered over the wheel it would be less prone to breaking I would think. This might however affect the ability to swivel, this might be the reason they are offset anyway.
Rich, Google found some rollers with a 1/4-20 threaded stud. The price is stupid money until you realize its for a pack of 25: Global Industrial 1" Diameter Stud Mount Ball For Ball Transfer Conveyor Tables - Pkg Qty 25
If there's a woodworking store in the valley, they might have something that would work for you.
If there's a woodworking store in the valley, they might have something that would work for you.
I think the threads on mine are 5/16 or 3/8 but this is the right idea, they seem to have them in those sizes as well. I might check one of these out!
KC8ONR
Member
Id look at the Nylon rollers , I don't think the tile floors would like the steel ball very well. The sound of steel running across tile floor makes me cringe thinking about it.
Fair point! Adding one more ingredient to the search!
Glad I'm not the only one who was thinking this...I was worrying for the tile, too! Seems like it might be more likely to cause a crack.
OK, no new stuff, just cleaned up and arranged better. I have found that using a setup for a couple weeks allows me to decide on changes to better access stuff, clean up wiring and eliminate unused fluff. I have been on a downsizing kick the last year anyway and continued to a more minimalist (at least for me) trend.
I like to put my feet up when watch YouTube or streaming and often would snag wires with my shoes, I decided once and for all to just elminate wires under the desk to avoid this.
This week I de-wired everything. Then I connected all the radios to a 25-amp 12VDC power supply, thus eliminating several power bricks from the Icoms and Unidens. I then took the AC surge-strip from under the desk and relocated it to the inside of the cabinet. That, along with the one I already had in there, allowed me to almost totally eliminate the wires under the desk. The only wires left under the desk are those for the motors that power the standing feature.
This is the same 3-bay/3u cabinet, no changes to the radio lineup in it from the last month or so. I bought new audio cables with right-angles on the Mixer end to keep them clean and neat. I also tried using the headphone jacks for the mixer instead of the rear external speaker jacks. I had mixed results; while the audio levels were greater (probably due to better impedance matching) there was annoying artifacts, hum and noise introduced. Every time I adjusted the volume it would loudly crackle. I went back to using the external speaker jack and this works much better but of course it makes it impossible to quickly use the internal speaker of the scanner.
Inside the cabinet are:
2 industrial heavy-duty surge-strips for AC power with 12-foot cords (enclosed in the white split-loom to the left)
8-port Stridsberg active multicoupler (for the 7 Uniden scanners and the R8600)
8-port network switch (for the Windows PC, office phone, SDS200 and the R8600)
PowerPole strip (for the radios and accessories, this connects to the 25-amp power supply.)
On the desk from left to right:
Studio Mic
Bose Studio Speakers (for the Mac)
IP Phone (for the occasional days that I help fill in for my sales job that I retired from this year.)
2 27-inch 4K monitors for the Mac.
Out of sight behind the right-side speaker is a CalDigit TS4 dock for the Mac as well as a hard drive for backups.
On top of the cabinet:
MacBook Pro M1Max 14-inch laptop in Clamshell Mode. (partially obscured by the monitor)
AirPods Max (for the Mac)
Behringer X2222 16-channel audio mixer
Logitech speakers connected to the mixer
Astron 25-amp power supply for all the radios
Intel Hades Canyon NUC and another 27-in 4K monitor for it.
Studio headphones (for the radios via the mixer)
In the cabinet:
Icom R8600
4x BCD536HP
SDS200
Icom IC-7300
BCD996XT
BCD996P2
On the bookshelf to the right of the desk are my Kenwood GMRS radio, TYT MD9600 DMR dual bander, IC-705 and my handheld scanners (SDS100, BCD436, BCD325P2, BC125AT and a pair of Icom R5's). My spare MacBook Pro lives there as does the network switch and firewall.
On the wall to the left are a pair of TV's used mostly to watch live cams of railroads or airports.
Behind my desk is my son's desk, he also uses 3 27" monitors and a home-made gaming computer with all the RGB and water-cooling stuff so popular with the gaming crowd these days. He also uses it for work and makes good use of our 2.5GB fiber Internet connection.
I like to put my feet up when watch YouTube or streaming and often would snag wires with my shoes, I decided once and for all to just elminate wires under the desk to avoid this.
This week I de-wired everything. Then I connected all the radios to a 25-amp 12VDC power supply, thus eliminating several power bricks from the Icoms and Unidens. I then took the AC surge-strip from under the desk and relocated it to the inside of the cabinet. That, along with the one I already had in there, allowed me to almost totally eliminate the wires under the desk. The only wires left under the desk are those for the motors that power the standing feature.
This is the same 3-bay/3u cabinet, no changes to the radio lineup in it from the last month or so. I bought new audio cables with right-angles on the Mixer end to keep them clean and neat. I also tried using the headphone jacks for the mixer instead of the rear external speaker jacks. I had mixed results; while the audio levels were greater (probably due to better impedance matching) there was annoying artifacts, hum and noise introduced. Every time I adjusted the volume it would loudly crackle. I went back to using the external speaker jack and this works much better but of course it makes it impossible to quickly use the internal speaker of the scanner.
Inside the cabinet are:
2 industrial heavy-duty surge-strips for AC power with 12-foot cords (enclosed in the white split-loom to the left)
8-port Stridsberg active multicoupler (for the 7 Uniden scanners and the R8600)
8-port network switch (for the Windows PC, office phone, SDS200 and the R8600)
PowerPole strip (for the radios and accessories, this connects to the 25-amp power supply.)
On the desk from left to right:
Studio Mic
Bose Studio Speakers (for the Mac)
IP Phone (for the occasional days that I help fill in for my sales job that I retired from this year.)
2 27-inch 4K monitors for the Mac.
Out of sight behind the right-side speaker is a CalDigit TS4 dock for the Mac as well as a hard drive for backups.
On top of the cabinet:
MacBook Pro M1Max 14-inch laptop in Clamshell Mode. (partially obscured by the monitor)
AirPods Max (for the Mac)
Behringer X2222 16-channel audio mixer
Logitech speakers connected to the mixer
Astron 25-amp power supply for all the radios
Intel Hades Canyon NUC and another 27-in 4K monitor for it.
Studio headphones (for the radios via the mixer)
In the cabinet:
Icom R8600
4x BCD536HP
SDS200
Icom IC-7300
BCD996XT
BCD996P2
On the bookshelf to the right of the desk are my Kenwood GMRS radio, TYT MD9600 DMR dual bander, IC-705 and my handheld scanners (SDS100, BCD436, BCD325P2, BC125AT and a pair of Icom R5's). My spare MacBook Pro lives there as does the network switch and firewall.
On the wall to the left are a pair of TV's used mostly to watch live cams of railroads or airports.
Behind my desk is my son's desk, he also uses 3 27" monitors and a home-made gaming computer with all the RGB and water-cooling stuff so popular with the gaming crowd these days. He also uses it for work and makes good use of our 2.5GB fiber Internet connection.
Attachments
Awesome as always. I'm curious about the mixer and I've read much in these threads. I'm considering the Behringer RX1602 that was mentioned along the way. Interesting that the external speaker jacks of the radios are performing better. I'm going to have the 4u version of the 3 bay rack you have and I need to do something neat with audio. Still researching.
I would give my left big toe for an 8-12 channel version of the NCS-3230. While the X2220 works great, I really do not need all the processing. If they had a 12-channel mixer in a smaller box (like a 4u one) with basic controls (a R-L selector, level and mute for each channel, with a master volume control) I probably would get one.
The Behringer was inexpensive but it is bulky!
The Behringer was inexpensive but it is bulky!
Agreed on the NCS-3230, that was a great device. I had another version of the Behringer at one point and it worked quite well. As I recall I may also have used the external speaker jacks. I'll have eight Uniden scanners that will need speakers which is why the 1602 looked like a logical choice. On the downside, despite the fact that it's rack mountable, I'd have to have it outside of the new setup as there's no place for it with the plans I have. Still trying to figure that piece of the puzzle out.
Rich, did you ever look at anything like this when you were searching around?
Behringer | Product | RX1202FX V2
Behringer Eurorack Pro RX1202FX Rackmount Mixer with Effects
No mutes but it's rack mount and about the size you mentioned a couple posts above.
Behringer | Product | RX1202FX V2
Behringer Eurorack Pro RX1202FX Rackmount Mixer with Effects
No mutes but it's rack mount and about the size you mentioned a couple posts above.
I agree that the bulk of a traditional desk-style mixer takes up a lot of space. A rack-mount mixer would be better, I think.
Some time ago, The Great Blantoni mentioned using a Behringer digital mixer though I don't remember which model. Behringer now has a line of what they call "digital stage box" mixers. They can also be rack-mounted. The trick, I think, is to put one of these mixers someplace that doesn't take up valuable desk space, wire all your devices to the mixer, and then adjust the routing and levels using the software (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android). Look at the Behringer XR12, XR16, or XR18.
Some time ago, The Great Blantoni mentioned using a Behringer digital mixer though I don't remember which model. Behringer now has a line of what they call "digital stage box" mixers. They can also be rack-mounted. The trick, I think, is to put one of these mixers someplace that doesn't take up valuable desk space, wire all your devices to the mixer, and then adjust the routing and levels using the software (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android). Look at the Behringer XR12, XR16, or XR18.
Mighty fine looking setup..
I looked at a digital mixer like his (X32) but that requires one to use a computer or mobile device to listen and/or control. For my purposes a manual mixer was preferable.
As the controls needed are really just the sliders on this mixer (once set up) I am thinking I could mount the monitor just behind them above the mixer, thus clearing up some more space. I just need a monitor mount that would not interfere with the cabinet.
The XR12, XR16, XR18 have main and aux outputs that can be run to powered monitor speakers or headphones. Yes, you need a computer for control, but in a set-up like yours, a NUC and a small monitor would do the trick.
Just use an Ethernet cable on those XR models and no need for another computer…just access it over the network from any computer or tablet on the same network.
- Status
