I decided to venture out and consolidate all my scanners and radios in a computer server rack instead of just sitting on my dresser. I've seen various projects on the Internet using anything from large server racks to Troy console setups used on desks and figured I'd give it a go. I started pricing out the 2U panels for mounting scanners and radios and was looking at outrageous prices for something I knew I would not be satisfied with because it would be too cookie cutter-looking to me so I started looking around for local shops that did water jet cutting and found a shop only 25 minutes from me. After some phone tag back and forth with the owner, I was able to set up a time to visit the shop and talk with the water jet operator to go over my drawing/idea/design and see what we could come up with.
While I waited for the time to come to visit the shop, I made a 1:1 paper design of the cabinet mounting panel to give the water jet operator an idea of what I had in mind. The layout from top to bottom is laid out as such: 8 scanners (4x2), 2 CDM for amateur radio (VHF/UHF) (1x2), a hole for coax from my Alpha Delta coax switch to route, the Alpha Delta switch will be flush mounted below the hole, and finally at the bottom 9 rectangular speakers (3x3) for the scanners and one for a portable I will have for monitoring a TRS. The panel is 18U tall leaving 4U of space which is perfect for a shelf to set my HF radio (Xiegu G90) on and whatever else I want at the top of the cabinet.
Finally the day came and I went to the shop and spent three hours directly involved in the custom design of the panel. The operator was going to finalize the design of the brackets that would be cut out and bent for the L brackets mounted to the panel and to the side of the scanners, radios, and speakers. He messaged me and said he did a dry run cut on wood panel and had to tweak a few things with the two CDM radios and the speaker angles but he would have the panel for me to pick up to verify the mounting slots would line up in the cabinet. I got home and verified the mounting holes lined up and dry fitted my scanners, radios, and speakers in the holes and verified everything fit beautifully. Next step is metal cutting.
The server cabinet is a 22U enclosed unit on wheels purchased locally from a gentleman on Facebook (all about keeping it local if possible). The scanners are Uniden BCT15X (x3), Uniden BCD996P2 (x2), and two GREs which I hope to swap out to Uniden's in the future. The two radios are Motorola CDM1250's (VHF and UHF). The antenna switch is an Alpha Delta DELTA-2 N connector coax switch. The switch powers an 8-port Stidsberg multicoupler MCD208M (BNC model) for the scanners and a Comet CF-416 Duplexer for the CDMs. The speakers are eBay no-name speaker that work perfectly for my scanners and noise level in my room. The antenna is a Diamond X50CN VHF/UHF fed to the antenna switch with LMR400 coax.
While I waited for the time to come to visit the shop, I made a 1:1 paper design of the cabinet mounting panel to give the water jet operator an idea of what I had in mind. The layout from top to bottom is laid out as such: 8 scanners (4x2), 2 CDM for amateur radio (VHF/UHF) (1x2), a hole for coax from my Alpha Delta coax switch to route, the Alpha Delta switch will be flush mounted below the hole, and finally at the bottom 9 rectangular speakers (3x3) for the scanners and one for a portable I will have for monitoring a TRS. The panel is 18U tall leaving 4U of space which is perfect for a shelf to set my HF radio (Xiegu G90) on and whatever else I want at the top of the cabinet.
Finally the day came and I went to the shop and spent three hours directly involved in the custom design of the panel. The operator was going to finalize the design of the brackets that would be cut out and bent for the L brackets mounted to the panel and to the side of the scanners, radios, and speakers. He messaged me and said he did a dry run cut on wood panel and had to tweak a few things with the two CDM radios and the speaker angles but he would have the panel for me to pick up to verify the mounting slots would line up in the cabinet. I got home and verified the mounting holes lined up and dry fitted my scanners, radios, and speakers in the holes and verified everything fit beautifully. Next step is metal cutting.
The server cabinet is a 22U enclosed unit on wheels purchased locally from a gentleman on Facebook (all about keeping it local if possible). The scanners are Uniden BCT15X (x3), Uniden BCD996P2 (x2), and two GREs which I hope to swap out to Uniden's in the future. The two radios are Motorola CDM1250's (VHF and UHF). The antenna switch is an Alpha Delta DELTA-2 N connector coax switch. The switch powers an 8-port Stidsberg multicoupler MCD208M (BNC model) for the scanners and a Comet CF-416 Duplexer for the CDMs. The speakers are eBay no-name speaker that work perfectly for my scanners and noise level in my room. The antenna is a Diamond X50CN VHF/UHF fed to the antenna switch with LMR400 coax.
