As described in the top-level ham page I currently have five fixed antenna in the garage over the “shack”. When I only had the single IC-705, and fewer antenna, I started with a Comet 2-way switch but quickly outgrew it. At a Mike and Key club swap meet I found a pair of MFJ-1701 (6-port) antenna selectors, which are really nice but only one input and HF only. So, I repurposed the Comet switch and had the IC-705 go into it, then it split with the 2m/70cm antenna on one port and an MFJ-1701 on the other. Not ideal.

Antennas

Each antenna is mounted in the garage attic and it’s cable is fed to a fixed SO-239 mount attached to a horizontal beam. These consist of two 8” 90° angle brackets in 3/16” stainless steel with four SO-239 pass-thru connectors. These allow me to work in the attic space without having to have cables dangling to the floor. I use Messi and Paoloni UltraFlex 10 for antenna to connector and Airborne 5 for some of the lighter antenna.

The two connector brackets came from Etsy but are no longer available. So, I bought 3’ of 1.75”×1/8” aluminum 90 degree angle stock and cut my own lengths and installed SO-239 bulkhead connectors after tapping the stock. The SO-239 external thread is 5/8”-24, so I purchased a tap and 37/64” drill bit set amazon.com which works perfectly.

I use the UltraFlex 10 exclusively for connector to patch rack and a mix of the UltraFlex 10 and Airborne 5 for rack to equipment runs.

The Rack

The following schematic shows the antennas and connectors described above and the patch rack attached now to the desk in place of the Comet and MFJ switches, The placement of the connecting lines to the rack is not simply illustrative, I route all antenna through the existing port on the top, all transceivers through an existing port on the bottom, and all accessories through a slot on the left side I made by cutting some of the ventilation slots open.

   antennas ─┐ ┌─ antennas      ╮
             ┴ ┴                ├─ attic
         connectors             │
             ┬ ┬                ╯
             ╱ ╱
   meters    │ │
    ┬ ┬   ┌──┴─┴──┐
    │ └───┤ Patch ├┈┈┈ left ground bus
    └─────┤  Rack │
          └──┬─┬──┘
             │ └───┤ Transceivers
             └─────┤   Scanners

The 6U 10” wall mounted rack currently has three 1U inserts, each with seven D-series connector blanks. I add good quality 50Ω D-series BNC connectors to these so there is one row for the fixed antenna in the middle, one row for the shack radios, and a top row for accessories. Radios and antennas are matched with 1’ or 2’ RG58 BNC cables. For example, the IC-705 is often switched between the two 2m/70cm antenna as one is used for voice (the vertical) and one for data (the horizontal).

Here’s a picture of the finished rack.

Antenna Patch Rack

This is a map of the current connections. Note that row 2 is used for labeling, rows 4 and 5 are currrently empty. Also, the NISSEI DG-503 is a dual HF and VHF/UHF SWF meter, so this allows the connection of a radio to the input of the 503 and the 503’s output to an antenna.

Row 1 Radio Row 3 Antenna Row 6 Meter
1 GMRS 1 GMRS 1  
2 Scanner 2 Scanner 2  
3 IC-705 3 20/70 (v) 3  
4 Bench 4 20/70 (h) 4 DG-503 HF in
5 KXPA #1 5 6m 5 DG-503 HF out
6 KXPA #2 6 10m 6 DG-503 VHF in
7 sBitz 7 200W Dummy 7 DG-503 VHF out

Port 4 on the radio row connects to a BNC connector fixed to the shack bench so
that any mobile or HT can be connected on the bench to any of the antenna for testing. I also like having a permanent dummy load available load so I can easily connect any radio for testing. Additionally, if I am only using one of the antenna ports on the KXPA100 the other must be connected to this load.

Parts

For labels I use Dymo 1/2” flexible nylon as these stick way better to imperfect surfaces and hold up better over time. Also, for cables I use “write-on” wire zip ties amazon.com as the tab is perfect for a small strip of the Dymo 1/2” label.