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5 or 6 years ago I posted to this forum a few pictures of my living room listening location. I have done a few changes so thought it might be time for an update.
This is the living room listening area, not the ham shack. The ham shack is in a converted spare bedroom. Since I spend most of my time monitoring, and not transmitting, and many years ago my wife got tired of being a radio widow, i.e. me being out of sight in the ham shack, I have traditionally had a monitoring location in the living room. My monitoring is mostly HF and down, not so much scanner type public service stuff. I do some VHF and up monitoring here also, but it tends not to be public service, but rather oddities found in the bands. To be sure we have scanners, it is just not a focus. For example on my wife’s computer desk is a Uniden BCD456HP, in my shop is an HP1, etc.
Years ago I shifted over to primarily SDR and CCR operations, so there are relatively few traditional superhet radios with front panels at the listening desk.
There are only 5 “traditional” radios at this desk (Icom R-75, Icom R8500, Icom R7000, Yaesu FT2000, and Realistic DX-302) and one sort of traditional looking radio, but really an SDR with a front panel, the Icom R8600. Off to the side, and not seen in the picture, is a shelf unit of older tube type gear. I like to fire that stuff up and tune around, but it is really more for nostalgia rather than use. I still have, and periodically use, the very first receiver I ever got as part of my original Novice station, a Hallicrafters SX-99, as well as dozens of other boat anchors, mostly Hallicrafters and Hammarlund, but with a few other brands thrown in.
Note that the FT2000 does not have a microphone connected. The mic is under the desk, and can be brought out if needed, but seldom is. Remember, this is a listening desk, the ham shack is in another part of the house, and that is where the mics and keys are active. So the FT2000 is mostly used as a receiver, but every once in a while does get fired up to TX.
The Hallicrafters CR-3000 in the upper right corner (under the DX-302, not even sure why the -302 is still in this stack) is used mostly as a stereo amplifier. Audio from all the radios goes to one of the mixers (in addition to the 4 seen here one other mixer is mounted under the desk, not visible). Any radio audio can be played on the audio amplifier or shipped to the house entertainment center for playing over the house speakers (most Wolverine pirate transmissions get played over the house sound system). Any radio, independent of what is being listened to on the speakers, can be shipped to one of the three computers that can do recordings. In theory I can record up to 18 different audio recordings (each a different frequency) at one time, in practical application I end up maxing out at 3 to 6 simultaneous audio recordings. Of course, SDRs can be making IQ recordings at the same time, for later demodulation. Also not seen are two NAS’s for storage of audio and RF recordings, one is 24 TB, the other is 32 TB.
The CCRs (Computer Controlled Radios) used at the desk here are the WinRadio WR-1000i, WinRadio WR-1550e (x2) and WinRadio WR-3550e.
The SDRs used at this desk are the RFSpace SDR-IQ (2 of them), RFSpace SDR-14, RFSpace NetSDR (probably my most used radio), AFEDRI dual channel, Elad FDM-S2, WinRadio G31DDC, and WinRadio G33DDC (my favorite radio, even if I end up using the NetSDR more). All of them are up and operating in this picture. SDRs tend to be my most used radios, with all other radios just setting on frequencies to look at / record signals.
The upper right monitor is used mostly for recording and analysis, although it can run radios as needed. The other five monitors are for radios. The center top monitor is typically where I have remotes up, when I use them, although in this picture it is running one of the RFSpace SDRs.
Like I said, HF is my focus, utilities, oddities, numbers, radars, etc. I tend to look at Asia a lot, but that is driven by my location.
T!
This is the living room listening area, not the ham shack. The ham shack is in a converted spare bedroom. Since I spend most of my time monitoring, and not transmitting, and many years ago my wife got tired of being a radio widow, i.e. me being out of sight in the ham shack, I have traditionally had a monitoring location in the living room. My monitoring is mostly HF and down, not so much scanner type public service stuff. I do some VHF and up monitoring here also, but it tends not to be public service, but rather oddities found in the bands. To be sure we have scanners, it is just not a focus. For example on my wife’s computer desk is a Uniden BCD456HP, in my shop is an HP1, etc.
Years ago I shifted over to primarily SDR and CCR operations, so there are relatively few traditional superhet radios with front panels at the listening desk.
There are only 5 “traditional” radios at this desk (Icom R-75, Icom R8500, Icom R7000, Yaesu FT2000, and Realistic DX-302) and one sort of traditional looking radio, but really an SDR with a front panel, the Icom R8600. Off to the side, and not seen in the picture, is a shelf unit of older tube type gear. I like to fire that stuff up and tune around, but it is really more for nostalgia rather than use. I still have, and periodically use, the very first receiver I ever got as part of my original Novice station, a Hallicrafters SX-99, as well as dozens of other boat anchors, mostly Hallicrafters and Hammarlund, but with a few other brands thrown in.
Note that the FT2000 does not have a microphone connected. The mic is under the desk, and can be brought out if needed, but seldom is. Remember, this is a listening desk, the ham shack is in another part of the house, and that is where the mics and keys are active. So the FT2000 is mostly used as a receiver, but every once in a while does get fired up to TX.
The Hallicrafters CR-3000 in the upper right corner (under the DX-302, not even sure why the -302 is still in this stack) is used mostly as a stereo amplifier. Audio from all the radios goes to one of the mixers (in addition to the 4 seen here one other mixer is mounted under the desk, not visible). Any radio audio can be played on the audio amplifier or shipped to the house entertainment center for playing over the house speakers (most Wolverine pirate transmissions get played over the house sound system). Any radio, independent of what is being listened to on the speakers, can be shipped to one of the three computers that can do recordings. In theory I can record up to 18 different audio recordings (each a different frequency) at one time, in practical application I end up maxing out at 3 to 6 simultaneous audio recordings. Of course, SDRs can be making IQ recordings at the same time, for later demodulation. Also not seen are two NAS’s for storage of audio and RF recordings, one is 24 TB, the other is 32 TB.
The CCRs (Computer Controlled Radios) used at the desk here are the WinRadio WR-1000i, WinRadio WR-1550e (x2) and WinRadio WR-3550e.
The SDRs used at this desk are the RFSpace SDR-IQ (2 of them), RFSpace SDR-14, RFSpace NetSDR (probably my most used radio), AFEDRI dual channel, Elad FDM-S2, WinRadio G31DDC, and WinRadio G33DDC (my favorite radio, even if I end up using the NetSDR more). All of them are up and operating in this picture. SDRs tend to be my most used radios, with all other radios just setting on frequencies to look at / record signals.
The upper right monitor is used mostly for recording and analysis, although it can run radios as needed. The other five monitors are for radios. The center top monitor is typically where I have remotes up, when I use them, although in this picture it is running one of the RFSpace SDRs.
Like I said, HF is my focus, utilities, oddities, numbers, radars, etc. I tend to look at Asia a lot, but that is driven by my location.
T!
