Rear operating desk
Station Cable Rats Nest
My stations operating position, is a large office desk, 2 meter by 1 meter. It was initially placed against a corner wall for convenience. This had the disadvantage that it was impossible work behind the desk. I eventually moved it out from the wall by 1 meter, and although this seems to eat into the room space, non the less out weighs the inconvenience, by being able to work around the back. It also places the desk somewhat as a center of focus within the room.
The picture shows all sorts of cables that have accumulated. No matter how many times they are sorted out, somehow they quickly revert to an unsightly mess. This is a typical situation for causing TVi.
Many Filters fitted
Because I had very bad TVi, I installed three of my very best RF filters, at various locations. Unfortunately this did not cure the problem. The horizontal box in the foreground is a KW low pass filter jutting out from the transceiver, above this and in the background are a further two low pass filters placed in series with the coaxial feeder to the antenna.
Operating desk
Matters are not that much better around the front. I have arranged everything for convenience, all equipment is bunched together. Also an excellent cause for TVi. It looks interesting and busy, but not much else.
Rear view after clean up
This is not a trick picture, the rig is still sitting on the table. This is a result of a total clean up. Three wires can be seen, one thick LDF450 coaxial cable and antenna rotator control cable. They both exit threw a hole in the wall. The third gray wire is the 240 ac mains cable and is plugged into the socket shown bottom right corner.
This mains cable is screened and is the only power cable to the radio station.
After clean up
Same view but a little higher to show the equipment. The three same cables can still be seen as explained in the text above.
Operating desk
After the clean up the station looks in good shape. No equipment has been removed just laid out better for curing TVi.