I have been using an Elfa shelf/desk system in my home office/Comms shack for almost 15 years. (See these threads for pics and descriptions):
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/222289-n9jig-shack-fall-2011-a.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/199661-n9jig-rearranged-2011-a.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/168886-2010-update-n9jig-shack.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/128660-latest-n9jig-radio-wall.html
This is a small second bedroom that we transformed. My wife and I grew bored with this and wanted to clear out some of the accumulated junk that has been gathering there. We spend a lot of time there so we wanted to do it right.
The first thing we did was clear out everything from, right down to the bare walls. We removed all the furniture and shelving and all of the support brackets except that in the closet that will be reused. We donated the stand-alone furniture to the Salvation Army resale shop along with a bunch of other accumulated and expendable items.
The room has a small closet along one wall of which I removed the sliding doors and closet rod to use as an extension to my radio nook.
We removed all the mounted stuff like the flat-screen TV, track lighting, pictures and clocks. We patched the various holes and removed the old ceiling fan in preparation for the painter and electrician. We will have an additional outlet installed on the one wall that lacks it and replace the ceiling fan and track-lighting with a new one.
We then bought 2 identical but reversible stand-alone corner desks. This will allow us to place them side-by-side or opposing each other depending on our moods of the moment. We also bought a nice leather recliner for the wife so she can knit and watch TV while I play radios. These remain stored until we are ready to move them into the office after painting and the radio shelves are up.
I have 2 dozen assorted antennas in the attic of our townhouse. The coax feeds come thru a hole in the ceiling in the former closet, behind a gusset. My painter is fashioning a free-standing wooden “downspout” to house the coaxes, this will be in the corner of the closet and painted to match the walls. At about 30 inches above the floor will be a pair of hinged doors with cutout corners to allow the currently used coax leads to be routed out and the unused ones will remain in the box out of sight. With a door on each of the two exposed edges I can route the coaxes for the two radio areas the proper directions.
Current plans are for me to have 2 radio areas. The left side will be scanners, computer controlled stuff and alert receivers. This will include radios for Pro96Com, Trunker and fire-tone decoding as well as alert receivers (BC15’s) for several local fire channels and scanners for various local channels and services. I figure I could do this with 18 radios, 4 2096’s (Pro96Com), 2 PSR600’s, 2 BC785’s, 2 BCD996XT’s, 2 BCT15X’s and 6 BCT15’s.
The 2096’s and 600’s will serve as decoding radios for Pro96Com and Trunker. The 785’s will be used for PL/DPL decoding as well as occasional voice radios for Trunker. The XT’s will serve for second radios for Pro96Com as well as local listening. The 15X’s will be used to decode fire tones and the 15’s will be used for fire tone alerting, railroad and aviation listening.
On the right side there will be various radios that transmit or are larger “knob twiddlers”. These include an R8500, R7000 and an R71 for receiving as well as a set of Motorola CDM1250’s for my work and GMRS channels. I also will have a Kenwood TMD-700A and Icom IC7000 for HF and VHF work. I will also have an HP-1 and perhaps an additional scanner for fiddling around with.
I will use a pair 30-amp switching power supply for the radios and the various accessories they will use (Tone and MDC decoders, multicouplers etc.). One power supply will be used on each side.
The left side radio accumulation will also house my Windows7 computer. With 9 GB of RAM I can run a half dozen instances of Pro96Com, ARC-XT and other applications with ease. I will figure out whether to use a wall mount for the monitor or perhaps get an elbow mount.
The right side radio set will not require a computer. My main everyday computer is a 27-inch quad-core iMac with a second monitor and 16GB of RAM. This is used for my web creation, email, web browsing etc. I also run Windows7 and my AirNav RadarBox via Parallels on this system.
My wife also has a similar iMac to mine but she doesn’t use a second monitor. Being deaf she has no need for radios, this also makes my nonsense palatable.
As for antennas, I have several decent scanner antennas of various types in the attic, these will run thru a set of Stridsberg multicouplers. I will use 2 8-port units for the regular and fire tone scanners and a 4-port 800 MHz. unit for the 2096’s. This will allow me to add a couple scanners to the mix later if I wish or plug in a handheld if needed.
The radios on the right side will mostly have their own antennas, and 2 of these have 2 antennas each (IC7000 and R8500). I will use a 4-port Stridsberg for the HP-1 and other scanner if needed.
All of this is subject to change as things shake out. While I have a good idea of what I want the way it looks in my head may not be practical once the room starts taking shape.
The goal here is to hide the wires as much as possible and provide enough wire length to allow easy pulling of radios for maintenance and replacement. While practical considerations of reach, visibility and operations will be the final determination on layout I am confident this plan will work well.
I will post pictures and update the thread after the room gets painted and as the project progresses.
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/222289-n9jig-shack-fall-2011-a.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/199661-n9jig-rearranged-2011-a.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/168886-2010-update-n9jig-shack.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...ile-setup/128660-latest-n9jig-radio-wall.html
This is a small second bedroom that we transformed. My wife and I grew bored with this and wanted to clear out some of the accumulated junk that has been gathering there. We spend a lot of time there so we wanted to do it right.
The first thing we did was clear out everything from, right down to the bare walls. We removed all the furniture and shelving and all of the support brackets except that in the closet that will be reused. We donated the stand-alone furniture to the Salvation Army resale shop along with a bunch of other accumulated and expendable items.
The room has a small closet along one wall of which I removed the sliding doors and closet rod to use as an extension to my radio nook.
We removed all the mounted stuff like the flat-screen TV, track lighting, pictures and clocks. We patched the various holes and removed the old ceiling fan in preparation for the painter and electrician. We will have an additional outlet installed on the one wall that lacks it and replace the ceiling fan and track-lighting with a new one.
We then bought 2 identical but reversible stand-alone corner desks. This will allow us to place them side-by-side or opposing each other depending on our moods of the moment. We also bought a nice leather recliner for the wife so she can knit and watch TV while I play radios. These remain stored until we are ready to move them into the office after painting and the radio shelves are up.
I have 2 dozen assorted antennas in the attic of our townhouse. The coax feeds come thru a hole in the ceiling in the former closet, behind a gusset. My painter is fashioning a free-standing wooden “downspout” to house the coaxes, this will be in the corner of the closet and painted to match the walls. At about 30 inches above the floor will be a pair of hinged doors with cutout corners to allow the currently used coax leads to be routed out and the unused ones will remain in the box out of sight. With a door on each of the two exposed edges I can route the coaxes for the two radio areas the proper directions.
Current plans are for me to have 2 radio areas. The left side will be scanners, computer controlled stuff and alert receivers. This will include radios for Pro96Com, Trunker and fire-tone decoding as well as alert receivers (BC15’s) for several local fire channels and scanners for various local channels and services. I figure I could do this with 18 radios, 4 2096’s (Pro96Com), 2 PSR600’s, 2 BC785’s, 2 BCD996XT’s, 2 BCT15X’s and 6 BCT15’s.
The 2096’s and 600’s will serve as decoding radios for Pro96Com and Trunker. The 785’s will be used for PL/DPL decoding as well as occasional voice radios for Trunker. The XT’s will serve for second radios for Pro96Com as well as local listening. The 15X’s will be used to decode fire tones and the 15’s will be used for fire tone alerting, railroad and aviation listening.
On the right side there will be various radios that transmit or are larger “knob twiddlers”. These include an R8500, R7000 and an R71 for receiving as well as a set of Motorola CDM1250’s for my work and GMRS channels. I also will have a Kenwood TMD-700A and Icom IC7000 for HF and VHF work. I will also have an HP-1 and perhaps an additional scanner for fiddling around with.
I will use a pair 30-amp switching power supply for the radios and the various accessories they will use (Tone and MDC decoders, multicouplers etc.). One power supply will be used on each side.
The left side radio accumulation will also house my Windows7 computer. With 9 GB of RAM I can run a half dozen instances of Pro96Com, ARC-XT and other applications with ease. I will figure out whether to use a wall mount for the monitor or perhaps get an elbow mount.
The right side radio set will not require a computer. My main everyday computer is a 27-inch quad-core iMac with a second monitor and 16GB of RAM. This is used for my web creation, email, web browsing etc. I also run Windows7 and my AirNav RadarBox via Parallels on this system.
My wife also has a similar iMac to mine but she doesn’t use a second monitor. Being deaf she has no need for radios, this also makes my nonsense palatable.
As for antennas, I have several decent scanner antennas of various types in the attic, these will run thru a set of Stridsberg multicouplers. I will use 2 8-port units for the regular and fire tone scanners and a 4-port 800 MHz. unit for the 2096’s. This will allow me to add a couple scanners to the mix later if I wish or plug in a handheld if needed.
The radios on the right side will mostly have their own antennas, and 2 of these have 2 antennas each (IC7000 and R8500). I will use a 4-port Stridsberg for the HP-1 and other scanner if needed.
All of this is subject to change as things shake out. While I have a good idea of what I want the way it looks in my head may not be practical once the room starts taking shape.
The goal here is to hide the wires as much as possible and provide enough wire length to allow easy pulling of radios for maintenance and replacement. While practical considerations of reach, visibility and operations will be the final determination on layout I am confident this plan will work well.
I will post pictures and update the thread after the room gets painted and as the project progresses.