[Premium-Rx] Cabinet suitable for RA-6778C

[Thomas Adams]

Greetings, Troops!

One of the folks who wrote me offline about the RA-6778C was talking
about getting a Hammond cabinet that would fit his. As we all know, 
Racal likes to build thier receivers DEEP, and rack cabinets made on 
this side of the Atlantic that are deep enough can be hard to find.
I have a beautiful rack cabinet for the rig, bought at a hamfest, which,
once I got it home, turned out to have 6" of radio hanging out in the 
breeze at the rear! Irritating to say the least.

After checking out the Hammond catalog, I couldn't see anything that 
was deep enough to do the job. HOWEVER...

Snooping around The Place that Shall Not Be Mentioned (EBay), I found
THIS deal, and bought one for my radio. Waiting for delivery now.

EBAY item number  270056362264

I never heard of Amco Engineering, but the cabinet looks like NOS, and
a very good fit. Condition is described as "New, but dusty". Likewise, a
5 rack unit high (8.75") cabinet doesn't show in the current Amco 
catalog. The depth is over 24", like modern computer server racks (thus
deep enough for a Racal chassis; the book says a rig depth of 19.9"). I
intend to use the extra depth to house an exhaust fan on a rear rack 
panel, along with a high stability 5 MHz time base oscillator (actually,
a crystal oven), as well as the extension cables/connectors to antenna,
speaker, power connector, etc.

The rack rails include attachment brackets for rack slides, in case you
want to put a set of slides on your radio.  


Front & rear bezels and frame are extruded 6061T aluminum, and the rest
of the cabinet is a combination of #14 and #18 cold rolled steel. The 
bottom plate of the cabinet is perforated aluminum sheet, so plenty of
ventilation there.

This guy's shipping is sort of high (higher than the cabinet cost!),
but considering what decent rack cabinets go for new it's STILL a
pretty good bargain, IMHO.

If you're in need, take a look.


It's interesting...  for decent receiver cabinets, EBAY seems to be a
pretty good resource if you have patience. My RA-1772s are now housed
in pretty decent Hammonds that were being closed out by a bankrupt
computer gear firm; brand new cabinets, and again shipping higher than
the cost of the item, except that the cost was STILL well below the
Hammond retail cost, MINUS shipping! 

It's just a matter of waiting for what you need to show up.


73's,

Mr. T., W9LBB