The NK7U Operating Desk

Two of the NK7U operating positions are located on a custom built desk. To me this desk has always been part of the magic of operating at NK7U. Sitting down in front of one of the stations with the array of hardware before you is just amazing.

FLASH -- NK7U Gets a new Main Operating Desk! (December 2005)

More details to come later but here are the first photo's on NK7U's new main operating desk. This started life as a commercial radio console that was scrounged from a local agency when they upgraded. Joe and Robbie, his right hand man, adapted it for amateur use with fantastic results as you you can see here.

(This picture is actually a merge of four separate photos which is why it looks a little odd in the lighting and some of the boxes don't quite fit together right. Because of a wall behind the desk I can't get back far enough to capture the desk all in one shot.)

The original Main Operating Desk

The following text describes the previous main operating desk that Joe had custom built back in the 1980's. It will now become the operating location for our secondary mult and run stations. Text and photo's will be updated later.

The photo below gives you an idea of what this desk looks like. Most often these two stations are operated as one interlocked pair where two operators are S&P'ing the same band or one is running while the other is S&Ping.

(This picture is actually a merge of three separate photos which is why it looks a little odd in the lighting and some of the boxes don't quite fit together right. Because of a wall behind the desk I can't get back far enough to capture the desk all in one shot.)

The general organization of this desk is as follows:

* On each end are the operating positions. Each position has its own radio, PC, amplifier, and watt meter. On top of the radios are outboard speakers and the interlock indicator box. You can also see the Top Ten Band Decoder which controls individual bandpass filters for each station and the Ameritron antenna relay selector. This allow each station to chose from the complete selection of antennas available on each band. The note card underneath the selection box a band by band "cheat sheet" of what each relay selection corresponds.

* In the center are the rotor controllers for the whole station. At the time this was taken there were six separate Tailtwister controllers, four TIC ring controllers, and the prop pitch controller for the 80M beam.  One of the largest remaining projects is to figure out how to move rotor control to the third station. Today an operator on station number three has to get someone to turn the antennas for him or get up out of his seat and come over to control bay to turn his own antennas. Also in the center are the StackMatch boxes for the 10, 15, and the two 20M two stacks.

And, in case you are wondering, yes the back of the desk is a mass of wires. It looks something like this.

 

(Again, this picture is actually a merge of three separate photos which is why it looks a little odd in the lighting and some of the boxes don't quite fit together right. Because of a wall behind the desk I can't get back far enough to capture the desk all in one shot.)