The AM Forum

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to keep things neat behind the rigs.. But I guess it's the front that counts..

Behind the rigs ...  who cares ... the secret is concealment!   The very best installations I've seen have been where one room is operational, and a wall hides the rear area where all the wiring is.  You can walk behind everything.

I've done some nicely ty-wrapped wiring, and it looks nice - until it's time to modify it when you have to cut everything up, insert or remove cables, and start again.  If it's for show, ya gotta do it.  If it's for my ham station, it just needs to be safe and well-labeled.   And keep it out of sight.

On the other hand, if I'm doing something that I know will remain the same for a long time, it may be worthwhile to wrap it up nicely.  Or not.

Chris

try some panduit. One on each side of the rack if you want to separate RF from audio and power, etc.

It can easily mount to the rear rails, or if you don't have them to the back flange. It can also be extended up to the overhead cable trays if you use those.

There is no rack installation so small it can not benefit from some form of orderly cable management.

When the local wafer fab closed and they tore down the sub-fab area, I bought a couple hundred feet of the products for cents on the dollar. The largter industrial auction houses often have the stuff listed and it can be had for just over scrap in some cases as there does not appear to be a big secondary market. Tip on cable tray for home use: never steel (except if you like basket), always aluminum ladder. light and easy to drill/hang, and nice looking.

Hiding it is shameful. It does not take a lot of gear to build a cabling wall of shame.

That yellow mess looks like Verizon POTS copper.

73DG

Ham radio is an experiment for me....I'm constantly changing the hookups...cable bundling just doesn't work..I have loose cable trays overhead and my audio and rx racks are "Medusa redneck"
  I keep the ac lines separated from the RF and audio....Fuses and breakers where ever possible...

Is that a 35 mm film canister I see in there? I used to use those for little things. Indeed there were even metal ones once upon a time. Now they are rare.

I remember the metal ones. We used to keep utility matches in them when camping but have not seen one in forever.

"Is that a 35 mm film canister I see in there? I used to use those for little things. Indeed there were even metal ones once upon a time. Now they are rare."


It is. I wish I had saved more. They come-in-handy at times.

I am told the plastic canisters can still be found at "smoking items shops".

there's all sorts of plastic and even metal ones on ebay, too.

Back on topic, what I have seen in many radio stations is too short cable lengths.  This means you have no room to pull something out and service it from the front.

Don't be chincy with cable length, it is easy to bundle up (never coil it) neatly.

If you have room in the back to stand, that is nice.  At least you can connect/disconnect things without hassles.

Panduit is a great thing, I have used many hundreds of feet of it in station construction and it is cheap and effective.

If you have the foresight, try a connection panel(s) in each rack with pre-installed permanent cables and connectors suitable for power, audio, and RF.  Tie each of those panels to another panel in a central location, and from there out to your real-world destinations.

Your rack/shelves will stay neat as all you will need are short intra-rack jumpers and changes are easy.

Then again, be cheap and do whatever.

73DG

+ safely.. goes for cables than can be tripped over as well as those with HV.
It is a part of overall neatness.

Can't trip on power cables if they are overhead from the back-o-rack to the wall.

If I'm behind my racks and the power fails making it pitch dark, I -know- there is nothing to trip over, and no dangers to the sides from exposed high voltages or sharp objects.