After a few days of cleaning up the corner of the workshop where I’m setting up the new shack, it was finally ready for the desk. I had an Ikea Galant corner desk set up in my home office – an unused bedroom on the second floor. I figured that by re-configuring that desk I could make one very long desk – about 9 feet long and 31-1/2″ deep, with a short “L” on the left end. I’d rather have had it on the right end, but Ikea discontinued that line years ago and obtaining a new desktop is not practical. I spent most of a day dismantling the desk and moving it to the basement, then most of another day re-assembling it there. I also had to source an additional leg from eBay. This desk is very strong! It’s got a frame made of square steel tubing bolted together, supported by some serious T-shaped legs. The desk top is 3/4″ particleboard, laminated with some wood veneer and stained black. In its final configuration it measures a bit over 110 inches long.
I put a four foot long power strip with 12 outlets on the wall behind the desk for AC power. That should be enough for the radios, shack accessories like the SB-610 station monitor, and the DC power supply for the other accessories like the automatic antenna tuner, Morse keyer, and so on. Then there’s the computer and two monitors (unless I power them from the DC power supply; the jury is out on that).
I have not yet decided where to mount the ground bus bar or DC Powerpole block yet; I’d planned to put them on the particle board panel behind the desk that holds the antenna switch and outlet strip, but I’m leaning toward a different arrangement now. I’ll get the coax switch up today and start the antenna cabling, but I’m sure I’ll need to buy some additional RG-8x jumpers – the longest i have are 3′, and the HW-16 at least will need longer than that. An Amazon shipment is due in today with the audio switch, ceiling hooks, and Velcro straps to get the cabling arranged as neatly as I can.
I bought a dual monitor wall mount arm, but the one I received is defective. Its replacement is due in today, and the two new 27″ 4K monitors should arrive tomorrow. I’ve been using a pair of 24″ HD (1024) monitors for probably more than 10 years, since my second previous employer sent them – they didn’t want them back when I left. They’re still functional but old, so they’ll have a new life with family members who can still use them. I’m glad I kept the original stands.
I need to shorten the antenna coax and get a new connector on the end, and get the PC carried downstairs and installed. That will be a fair amount of cabling, since I want to set up the KVM switch so I can, if needed, plug in something like a Raspberry Pi, a mini PC, or my laptop and use the keyboard, mouse, and monitors. I’ve been using a pair of Altec Lansing computer speakers that I’ve had since the early 90s; they work and sound great, but I may go with something smaller. Most computer speakers now are either way overkill gaming setups with subwoofers, or garbage little pieces of crap. I think I may still have a halfway decent little Dell speaker bar somewhere in my old office, I’ll see if I can find that and figure out a good way to mount it.