Why Rack Mount Your Radios
Construction
Selecting Your Rack Mount
Special Rack Mounts
Radio Installation
Rack Enclosures

Why Rack Mount Your Radios

Here are just a few reasons given by some of the operators we have heard from:
1) Gives my radio room a professional look.
2) Saves space so I can buy more radios and have a place to keep them.
3) Makes it easier to access and use my equipment all in one place.
4) Keeps my gear protected from bumps and scratches.
5) If someone breaks into my house, they will have a difficult time getting my radios.
6) I finally have all those ugly wires out of sight, looks great
7) My wife likes the way my shack looks; she even shows her friends my room.

We need three more reasons to have a top 10 list. Let us hear from you.

Construction

A local metal master using the latest high-tech computer aided design (CAD) and computer-controlled machinery manufactures our rack mounts.

EIA Standards. All of our rack mounts are standard EIA 19" relay rack size. Rack equipment is usually listed in U units, one U equals 1 ¾" height. You will see most of our racks are 3U, meaning they are 5 ¼" high. The larger radios, like the Icom 756 and 746, are 4U or 7" high.

Front panels are made from .125" aluminum and painted with powder coat to a hard-baked finish. The color used is mostly black with a light touch of brown. This color is complimentary to most radios, and shows off the equipment to its fullest. The one color exception is the Collins rack mount kits, which is a matching Collins Gray.

Trays (shelves) for the RM7000 and & RM7100 rack mounts are made of .090" aluminum. The RM75, RM746, RM756 and Collins trays are made of 0625" Paintlok ® steel and will support up to 75 pounds.

Paintlok Steel has an electroplated finish and is impervious to rust and corrosion. Your computer cabinet was most likely fabricated using Paintlok steel. VCRs, TV chassis and most of our radio gear’s chassis are Paintlok. Paintlok steel is the choice of designers and manufactures of metal products.

Speakers. The speakers we use have a 3" Mylar ® cone that won’t distort in humid weather and/or high heat environments. These speakers will handle 5 Watts continuous or 8-Watts peak power, and come with a 6’ cord terminated with a standard 1/8" (3.5mm) plug that matches 99% of all radios. We have sold hundreds of these speakers and have never had one reported failure.

Selecting Your Rack Mount

Many of our rack mounts will work with more than one radio. We have listed the radios we know under Current Products for each model rack mount kit. There are sure to be more radios than those shown. If you have any questions about which model rack mount fits which radio, or know of any other radios the same size as those listed, please drop us an email.

If you have a radio that is not listed in our Current Products list, measure the front bezel of your radio and compare to the measurements listed as bezel size. Sometimes a radio may be slightly smaller than an existing rack mount and it could be a cost-effective way to have that radio rack mounted even though it may not be a perfect fit.

What size is your radio?
We have provided a list of most Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, AOR, Collins S line, Drake R4 & R7 line, Ten Tec and JRC. You will find the bezel size listed in inches and mm. By knowing your radio size you can go back to our product list and see if we have a rack mount that will accommodate your radio or, if your radio is slightly smaller, it will fit but will have a gap between the radio and the bezel. This may be a cost-effective way to rack mount a radio when there is no rack mount designed for that exact model.

Special Rack Mounts

Each new rack mount design requires a set-up fee, more commonly referred to as the engineering cost. Today’s metal fabricating shops use highly sophisticated computer-controlled machinery. Once the design concept is finalized, the CAD engineer goes to work with all the detail measurements, hole sizes, hole placement, all the cutouts and the outside shape of the item to be made. A test sample is made as a final check and once all involved agree that the test sample is perfect, sheets of metal are feed into computer-controlled punch presses. Then the parts are de-burred, bent into their final shape, and prepared for painting, if required.

Because of CAD design and initial set-up, it is not cost effective to produce small quantities of special rack mounts. The only way to get the unit cost of our rack mounts into a reasonable price range is to spread that initial engineering cost over a minimum of 50 units. If you want a special rack mount for your radio model XYZ, the bad news is that the first unit cost will be in the $1000 range. The good news is the second unit will only cost about $500. These numbers are not exact but you get the idea. Making special units this way is not cost effective.

We welcome your inquires because we track the level of user interest in different radios they would like to rack mount. When there is sufficient interest, we will consider producing that rack mount. Don’t be shy about asking if we are considering a rack mount that fits a specific radio.

Radio Installation

Our new design used in the RM746, RM756 and the Collins S line makes installation easier. The tray is installed into the rack cabinet, the radio is then positioned onto the tray, then the front panel slides over the radio allowing the radio to protrude through the front panel about .375"

Rack Enclosures

Novexcomm does not offer rack enclosures. We have made enclosures using common materials found at Home Depot. (See photos). Some other sources for used enclosures are hamfest, eBay and swap meets. New enclosures can be found at many electronic suppliers such as the Allied Electronics web site (www.alliedelec.com) phone 800-433-5700; or Newark Electronics web site

(www.newark.com) phone 800-4-NEWARK. Another source for rack enclosures is professional sound sales companies like, Raxxess. Take a look at site www.raxxess.com.
Don’t forget www.google.com, you can find anything there.