Here's a look at the Study Island that I'll be using for the voice radios.
On the shelf, L-R are the Johnson Messenger 4145 (CB), the Heathkit HW-2036 (2m), and the Kenwood TK-931 (902-928 MHz / 33cm).
On the desk, L-R are a decent speaker I used for listing to broadcast radio, two Radio Shack scanners, and the IC-x8A triplets, stacked from bottom to top as the IC-48A, IC-38A, and IC-28A. On the desk are the ICx8A microphones, power cables, and a hole saw set from Harbor Freight that I'll be using to cut some cable access holes in the Study Island.
The plywood insert will be a basic 3 sided box (with a strip of bracing in the back for stability, and some strips for mounting the speakers and the microphones). Height will be "desk to underneath the shelf" and width will be "side to side" and will just slip in and out for easy modification, so I don't have to try to drill into the fragile chipboard of the study island.
What looks like a second shelf is just a piece of plywood across the top of the two side pieces. I'll eventually make a plywood construct up there too, with room for notebooks, etc.
You just get a glimpse of underneath, but it will get a "plywood box" treatment too, with as big a drawer unit (or two) as I can find, and mounting for the power supply, battery, and power distribution units.
Incidentally, the photo was taken and posted using my hours-old iPhone 3G using the free, but more-than-a-bit-fragile-and-buggy TypePad for iPhone v 1.0.2 app from the iPhone App Store. It took two tries - the TypePad for iPhone completely lost the first attempt - glad I didn't go to the trouble of entering any text on the iPhone (the post was later edited on a desktop to add the text).
Shopping this weekend:
- Plywood
- More toolbox liners @ Harbor Freight for the Data Radio Wire Shelving
- Nightlights modified with LED bulbs - it's a bit dark in there at night with no radios on yet
- 12V lighting @ West Marine (I think) for lighting the desk are of the Voice Radio Study Island
- Cheap stereo of some kind at a thrift store, mostly for an amplifier stage to listen to iPhone content (not sure where that's going to live).
Found a nice pair of compact stereo speakers and three good-quality automotive jumper cables (made back when copper wasn't quite so expensive so they used a lot of it) at an estate sale this morning.
But a big chunk of the wet and a bit chilly weekend will be spent sprucing up my (writing) office - it's been neglected since the Radio Room became a project and I just cannot work in there at the moment - at all, with all the clutter/crap.
PS - Any readers know good places to find "matching" (reasonably) Motorola two-way radio external speakers? eBay is coming up a bit short (but I'll keep looking). If prices are reasonable, I'll consider buying new from a two-way radio dealer.
PSS - Or maybe consider a brand of two-way radio speaker other than Motorola? But I haven't seen (heard) anything I like that's "Amateur Grade", like the tinny little ones. It's just that the Motorola speakers always sound so good for communications!
73,
Steve N8GNJ
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