Tech
Portable Radio
An article on Dan Romanchk’s web comes from our own expert in portables!
Here’s a guest post by Ed Jones, K8MEJ. If you’d like me to publish a guest post or yours, please email
me….Dan
I like to operate portable, whether it’s my new interest in operating amateur satellites or my love of
HF. My family has a travel trailer and I’ve been taking my ten-year-old son camping since he was
three. When we go camping, I usually bring along some ham radio and my family tolerates an hour
in the morning and an hour in the evening listening to atmospheric noise, hearing me shout my call
sign in the mic over and over trying to be heard in some distant land, and my giddy excitement when
I work an ATNO from the campground.
These rack-mount units house my IC-7300, IC-9700, KPA500 and a 30A power supply.
I also occasionally operate at Scout events that are one to five days long, activate a rare county each
year for the Ohio QSO Party, or sometimes just go set up in a park for a few hours and play radio.
For all of these occasions, I found that transporting and setting up my radios, cables, batteries, etc.
would take 20-30 minutes to set up and again to put away. That’s in addition to setting up any
antennas and feedlines. So, my goal this year was to both simplify and expand my portable
operating kit. I wanted to greatly reduce any setup and tear down time for the radio(s), speed up
antenna deployment for quick outings, and for longer outings have a rotatable gain antenna. I’ll write
about portable antennas another day. This article will describe my progress so far with building “go
boxes” for my radios.
I had been keeping an eye out over the last couple of years for ideas on how to make my gear more
portable. I live close to Xenia, Ohio so going to Hamvention each year is akin to going to my local
hamfest. I had examined the options from a company called iPortable. They make some kit that is
better looking than most of the homebrew go boxes I have seen, but the final result does not have
that minimal, clean look I prefer. Still, for those who value function more than form, it’s a good
option. Other vendors had go box offerings on display, but nothing I saw really excited me. So, I kept
looking for better ideas.
Somewhere along the way, my Googling brought me to Novexcomm’s website. They make semi-
custom go box kit that from the front looks nicer than iPortable’s kit. They’re easy to work with, and
they are pretty quick to turn around some customizations. Bob Burchett is a super nice guy and will
spend all the time you want from him on the phone. After some back-and-forth with Bob, I pulled
the trigger on a 6U rack mount case, a mount for my IC-7300, a mount for my IC-9700, front panels
with speakers, his version of a Powergate board, a 30amp power supply, and a rear IO panel with the
connections I requested.
At first, I was excited when I opened up the box. The front panels looked nice and aside from
Novexcomm’s logo plastered everywhere, it had the minimal, clean look I was looking for. But as I
began to put things together, I determined that I wasn’t really all that happy with how they mount
the radios in the case. Novexcomm and iPortable use shelves that mount in the rack. Novexcomm
machines a thin aluminum front panel that you mount over top the rack shelf. The front panel is ok,
and the rack shelf is ok, but the brackets they provided to mount my 7300 and 9700 radios were
simply pieces of bent aluminum bar stock. I needed to drill into the bottom of the shelf and attach
the brackets and then use the provided thumb screws to attach the radio to the brackets. The screws
they provided to attach the brackets to the shelf were too long and interfered with the thumb
screws. That was a silly oversight. In addition, there wasn’t a single fuse or protection device in the
entire kit. There is nothing to protect the Powergate board and no fuses or circuit breakers for the
power supply. And finally, while basic installation instructions were provided, there is zero
documentation on how the Powergate board works, no troubleshooting information, and no where I
could find to download firmware updates.
Once completed, it’s sturdy enough for light duty use and to be transported on the rear seat of my
truck, but I wouldn’t trust it for rough transport or on a plane. But really, how many hams do that?
Truth be told, for the average weekend ham, it’s fine. But I ended up spending a lot of time doing re-
work on the Novexcomm box to fix a faulty battery bracket, get different screws for the radio
brackets, install fuse links on every DC line and on the AC feed to the power supply, install a switch to
turn the fans on or off, and install a master battery switch.
When it came time to rack mount my Elecraft KPA500 amplifier and matching KAT500 tuner, I knew I
wanted a mount and panel that was much sturdier. The KPA500/KAT500 combo is heavy, and I didn’t
want to use a shelf with a thin front panel. And if I was going to spend so much time modifying
something I thought would be more turn-key, I might as well spend the time to specify exactly what I
wanted. So, I went to back to Google to see how I could do better, and I found SNS Engineering.
Elecraft lists SNS Engineering in their recommended third-party vendor list. I was immediately
impressed with the 3D drawings for their rack mount panel for my KPA500/KAT500. SNS makes
replacement side panels for the amp and tuner, which add captive nuts to attach the custom
aluminum side brackets. These are full-size side brackets, not thin strips of aluminum stock I used to
attach my radios to the shelves. These side brackets are then attached to the back of the front panel,
which is made from ¼” thick high-strength aluminum. The brackets are attached to the back of the
panel with blind screws so the front panel is as minimal and clean as you can get. SNS Engineering
are true craftsman. Installation was a snap and I had the case built in no time. I decided I’d work with
SNS to custom design a rear rack panel for the amp/tuner box so I wouldn’t have to reach inside the
case to connect cables, coax, and power when I moved the amp/tuner between portable use with my
IC-7300 and my Flex 6400 at home.
In the meantime, I built up the Novexcomm 6U radio box and the SNS 4U amp/tuner cases and hit
the road. KE8BOV and I went camping for three days and spent two days DX’ing and the third day
operating the Ohio QSO Party from a rare county, as has become our yearly tradition. I quickly
realized that having the IC-7300, IC-9700, power supply, 20Ah Bioenno battery, cables, and rear panel
made for a heavy 6U case. I wanted to reduce the weight of any single box and I opted to have each
radio in its own case and to move all power to its own box. This provides for a very modular system,
though it does mean more boxes overall. I’m younger than the average ham, but I also didn’t want to
risk a hernia! Since I would now have four separate boxes instead of two, I’d need new rear I/O
panels for the radio cases in addition to the amp/tuner case. And it also meant more re-work. But
hey, this is my first attempt and it would be silly to expect perfection right away.
Working with SNS Engineering on the design for the rear rack panels taught me a lot about what
goes into designing and manufacturing fully custom equipment. It’s a lot more complicated than I
ever imagined to properly engineer a product. That’s why I think Novexcomm has a good solution for
the average ham. They make it simple to get a decent looking product, but if you’re willing to spend
the time and money, you can do much better. SNS Engineering spent way more time than they
probably should have and was very patient working around my impatience just to be done. In the
end, we had to specify and agree on every single item on each panel, right down to the specific
switch, circuit breaker, bulkhead connector, fan, guard, etc. At first, I didn’t want to deal with all the
detail, but as they would send me 3D drawings, I began to realize that details really do matter. In the
end, the front and rear rack mount panels from SNS are far and away higher quality than anything
else I found and certainly better than anything I could build on my own.
So, what would my advice be to anyone interested in building a go box that looks more polished
than something the average ham can homebrew? First, if you have a mobile radio you just want
mounted in a box with a speaker and some antenna jacks, the iPortable box is good and relatively
inexpensive. If you want something with a little cleaner front end but don’t want to spend many
hours researching specific components, mounting hardware, and layout, the Novexcomm products
are pretty decent. Just take note of my comments above and address them before you place any
orders. If you want something for a stationary rack at home or you want the highest quality rack
mounts for your portable rack cases, SNS Engineering is the way to go.
I’ve not fully finished the project. I’ve learned a lot along the way, and I want to revisit some of the
decisions I made. It means spending more than I originally thought I’d spend, and it means more re-
do work, but it’ll be done right in the end. I plan to have SNS Engineering machine the rear panel for
my IC-9700 box and the font panel for my power box. I also wish I had chosen to have rear panels
the full size of the box instead of smaller panels. However, there is one advantage of using a 2U rear
panel on a 3U box, for example. If I’m running solely on battery power, I don’t want to run the fans
unless I absolutely have to. Having some open space means that unless it’s very hot outside, I’m
operating in the sun, or running very high duty cycle, I can leave the fans off and conserve a bit more
power. The fans in the radios and amp will keep the electronics cool. The fans on the back of the
case just keep hot air from getting trapped in the case if it’s hot outside.
The purpose in writing this article is to describe some of the considerations you need to make in
designing portable cases for your equipment and to review some of the options I found. I purposely
left out a lot of the technical details because this article is long enough already. However, I’m happy
to answer any specific questions you might have. You can contact me by looking me up on QRZ.com.
As they say, “I’m good on QRZed”.
Or, in our case, you might just tap him on a shoulder at a DELARA meeting!
Tech
Portable Radio
An article on Dan Romanchk’s web comes from
our own expert in portables!
Here’s a guest post by Ed Jones, K8MEJ. If you’d like
me to publish a guest post or yours, please email
me….Dan
I like to operate portable, whether it’s my new
interest in operating amateur satellites or my love of
HF. My family has a travel trailer and I’ve been taking
my ten-year-old son camping since he was three.
When we go camping, I usually bring along some
ham radio and my family tolerates an hour in the
morning and an hour in the evening listening to
atmospheric noise, hearing me shout my call sign in
the mic over and over trying to be heard in some
distant land, and my giddy excitement when I work
an ATNO from the campground.
These rack-mount units house my IC-7300, IC-9700,
KPA500 and a 30A power supply.
I also occasionally operate at Scout events that are
one to five days long, activate a rare county each
year for the Ohio QSO Party, or sometimes just go
set up in a park for a few hours and play radio. For
all of these occasions, I found that transporting and
setting up my radios, cables, batteries, etc. would
take 20-30 minutes to set up and again to put away.
That’s in addition to setting up any antennas and
feedlines. So, my goal this year was to both simplify
and expand my portable operating kit. I wanted to
greatly reduce any setup and tear down time for the
radio(s), speed up antenna deployment for quick
outings, and for longer outings have a rotatable gain
antenna. I’ll write about portable antennas another
day. This article will describe my progress so far with
building “go boxes” for my radios.
I had been keeping an eye out over the last couple
of years for ideas on how to make my gear more
portable. I live close to Xenia, Ohio so going to
Hamvention each year is akin to going to my local
hamfest. I had examined the options from a
company called iPortable. They make some kit that
is better looking than most of the homebrew go
boxes I have seen, but the final result does not have
that minimal, clean look I prefer. Still, for those who
value function more than form, it’s a good option.
Other vendors had go box offerings on display, but
nothing I saw really excited me. So, I kept looking for
better ideas.
Somewhere along the way, my Googling brought me
to Novexcomm’s website. They make semi-custom
go box kit that from the front looks nicer than
iPortable’s kit. They’re easy to work with, and they
are pretty quick to turn around some
customizations. Bob Burchett is a super nice guy
and will spend all the time you want from him on
the phone. After some back-and-forth with Bob, I
pulled the trigger on a 6U rack mount case, a mount
for my IC-7300, a mount for my IC-9700, front
panels with speakers, his version of a Powergate
board, a 30amp power supply, and a rear IO panel
with the connections I requested.
At first, I was excited when I opened up the box. The
front panels looked nice and aside from
Novexcomm’s logo plastered everywhere, it had the
minimal, clean look I was looking for. But as I began
to put things together, I determined that I wasn’t
really all that happy with how they mount the radios
in the case. Novexcomm and iPortable use shelves
that mount in the rack. Novexcomm machines a thin
aluminum front panel that you mount over top the
rack shelf. The front panel is ok, and the rack shelf is
ok, but the brackets they provided to mount my
7300 and 9700 radios were simply pieces of bent
aluminum bar stock. I needed to drill into the
bottom of the shelf and attach the brackets and
then use the provided thumb screws to attach the
radio to the brackets. The screws they provided to
attach the brackets to the shelf were too long and
interfered with the thumb screws. That was a silly
oversight. In addition, there wasn’t a single fuse or
protection device in the entire kit. There is nothing
to protect the Powergate board and no fuses or
circuit breakers for the power supply. And finally,
while basic installation instructions were provided,
there is zero documentation on how the Powergate
board works, no troubleshooting information, and
no where I could find to download firmware
updates.
Once completed, it’s sturdy enough for light duty
use and to be transported on the rear seat of my
truck, but I wouldn’t trust it for rough transport or
on a plane. But really, how many hams do that?
Truth be told, for the average weekend ham, it’s
fine. But I ended up spending a lot of time doing re-
work on the Novexcomm box to fix a faulty battery
bracket, get different screws for the radio brackets,
install fuse links on every DC line and on the AC feed
to the power supply, install a switch to turn the fans
on or off, and install a master battery switch.
When it came time to rack mount my Elecraft
KPA500 amplifier and matching KAT500 tuner, I
knew I wanted a mount and panel that was much
sturdier. The KPA500/KAT500 combo is heavy, and I
didn’t want to use a shelf with a thin front panel.
And if I was going to spend so much time modifying
something I thought would be more turn-key, I
might as well spend the time to specify exactly what
I wanted. So, I went to back to Google to see how I
could do better, and I found SNS Engineering.
Elecraft lists SNS Engineering in their recommended
third-party vendor list. I was immediately impressed
with the 3D drawings for their rack mount panel for
my KPA500/KAT500. SNS makes replacement side
panels for the amp and tuner, which add captive
nuts to attach the custom aluminum side brackets.
These are full-size side brackets, not thin strips of
aluminum stock I used to attach my radios to the
shelves. These side brackets are then attached to
the back of the front panel, which is made from ¼”
thick high-strength aluminum. The brackets are
attached to the back of the panel with blind screws
so the front panel is as minimal and clean as you
can get. SNS Engineering are true craftsman.
Installation was a snap and I had the case built in no
time. I decided I’d work with SNS to custom design a
rear rack panel for the amp/tuner box so I wouldn’t
have to reach inside the case to connect cables,
coax, and power when I moved the amp/tuner
between portable use with my IC-7300 and my Flex
6400 at home.
In the meantime, I built up the Novexcomm 6U
radio box and the SNS 4U amp/tuner cases and hit
the road. KE8BOV and I went camping for three days
and spent two days DX’ing and the third day
operating the Ohio QSO Party from a rare county, as
has become our yearly tradition. I quickly realized
that having the IC-7300, IC-9700, power supply,
20Ah Bioenno battery, cables, and rear panel made
for a heavy 6U case. I wanted to reduce the weight
of any single box and I opted to have each radio in
its own case and to move all power to its own box.
This provides for a very modular system, though it
does mean more boxes overall. I’m younger than
the average ham, but I also didn’t want to risk a
hernia! Since I would now have four separate boxes
instead of two, I’d need new rear I/O panels for the
radio cases in addition to the amp/tuner case. And it
also meant more re-work. But hey, this is my first
attempt and it would be silly to expect perfection
right away.
Working with SNS Engineering on the design for the
rear rack panels taught me a lot about what goes
into designing and manufacturing fully custom
equipment. It’s a lot more complicated than I ever
imagined to properly engineer a product. That’s why
I think Novexcomm has a good solution for the
average ham. They make it simple to get a decent
looking product, but if you’re willing to spend the
time and money, you can do much better. SNS
Engineering spent way more time than they
probably should have and was very patient working
around my impatience just to be done. In the end,
we had to specify and agree on every single item on
each panel, right down to the specific switch, circuit
breaker, bulkhead connector, fan, guard, etc. At first,
I didn’t want to deal with all the detail, but as they
would send me 3D drawings, I began to realize that
details really do matter. In the end, the front and
rear rack mount panels from SNS are far and away
higher quality than anything else I found and
certainly better than anything I could build on my
own.
So, what would my advice be to anyone interested
in building a go box that looks more polished than
something the average ham can homebrew? First, if
you have a mobile radio you just want mounted in a
box with a speaker and some antenna jacks, the
iPortable box is good and relatively inexpensive. If
you want something with a little cleaner front end
but don’t want to spend many hours researching
specific components, mounting hardware, and
layout, the Novexcomm products are pretty decent.
Just take note of my comments above and address
them before you place any orders. If you want
something for a stationary rack at home or you
want the highest quality rack mounts for your
portable rack cases, SNS Engineering is the way to
go.
I’ve not fully finished the project. I’ve learned a lot
along the way, and I want to revisit some of the
decisions I made. It means spending more than I
originally thought I’d spend, and it means more re-
do work, but it’ll be done right in the end. I plan to
have SNS Engineering machine the rear panel for
my IC-9700 box and the font panel for my power
box. I also wish I had chosen to have rear panels the
full size of the box instead of smaller panels.
However, there is one advantage of using a 2U rear
panel on a 3U box, for example. If I’m running solely
on battery power, I don’t want to run the fans unless
I absolutely have to. Having some open space
means that unless it’s very hot outside, I’m
operating in the sun, or running very high duty
cycle, I can leave the fans off and conserve a bit
more power. The fans in the radios and amp will
keep the electronics cool. The fans on the back of
the case just keep hot air from getting trapped in
the case if it’s hot outside.
The purpose in writing this article is to describe
some of the considerations you need to make in
designing portable cases for your equipment and to
review some of the options I found. I purposely left
out a lot of the technical details because this article
is long enough already. However, I’m happy to
answer any specific questions you might have. You
can contact me by looking me up on QRZ.com.
As they say, “I’m good on QRZed”.
Or, in our case, you might just tap him on a shoulder at
a DELARA meeting!