New to smoking.

Marshall, Welcome to the SMF.

Its a bit hotter the higher you go. I never worry about which rack the meat is on unless its poultry which for safety reasons should be on the lower rack so it doesnt drip on other types of meats. If your just doing one type of meat any rack will do. If I am doing only one piece of meat I put it in the middle.

Probably the most important thing for smoking is to make sure the temperature is right. I put a thermometer , The type you hang inside your oven, on the rack right beside the meat. Once you get the temps right and have some thin blue smoke caressing the meat your in business. Good luck.

Welcome to the SMF, plenty of great information from friendly folks. You've had some very good input already, I might add that if you're smoking chicken along with other foods/meats, keep the chicken on the bottom rack for health safety reasons. Enjoy.

I use two digitals also, one in the meat and the other probe I stick it through a potato and lay it on the rack beside the meat. I have found the less expensive digitals work just as good as the more expensive. I have one I got from Bass Pro I paid 50 bucks for it. The other I got from wal-mart and it cost 16 bucks and works just as good as the other one. OH and by the way WELCOME TO SMF.