Shack Refurb - Antenna Patch Panel

When Julie decided a new carpet was required, I decided to rebuild the shack. This involved some drastic redesign of the desk, which is still in the process of being repopulated with equipment. This will take some time, as new power runs and cable control is needed.

As part of this, and in order to get away from the interminable jungle of thick coax behind the desk, which makes connecting anything up a nightmare, I decided that all coax coming into the shack will go to a patch panel, and from there, flexible short jumpers will be used to the equipment.

The panel is cut from 3mm sheet aluminium, and will be mounted on a wooden frame. The wall cutout behind will need expanding somewhat, forming a cone shaped entry. Four N-type bulkheads, plus one BNC bulkhead, are provided for the main antennas, plus a little bit of expansion capability. A 30mm diameter grommeted hole allows other cables, such as temporary antenna feeds, DC cables, control cables etc, to be fed through.