“mostly,” only because I’m still trying to decide on the radio that will live permanently in it… In the mean time, my mobile, a Kenwood TM-V71A, sites nicely in on top of the empty area.
My go-box consists of:
- Harbor Freight/Apache 3800 case
- Seems really sturdy, and is IP65 watertight and dustproof, and for a price point that made the decision pretty easy.
- Bioenno power LiFePO4 (12V, 12Ah battery
- It’s light! 3.3 lbs!
- Bank of 4 switches with a volt meter and USB plus attached
- An SO239/SO239 panel connector to route the antenna coax from the antenna to underneath the panel
- A Pl259/PL259 1′ pigtail coax cable to route from the other side of the SO239 connector to the future radio, once its mounted in, or underneath the panel
- A set of Powerpole connectors on the case to power equipment above the panel
- A 2.1mm x 5mm charging port to charge the LFP battery from the charger at home.
- A master switch to shut the hole thing off.
Future plans for the case are:
- Get a small 25W mobile radio and mount it flush with the panel
- I’ll also need some larger holes to facilitate air flow, and I have some small computer fans that I’ll wire up to those
- Alternatively, the radio will be something slightly larger, but with a remote control-head, and will mount the radio underneath with the control-head above. Still investigating my choices.
- Once a radio is in place, I can see what my real estate is beneath and what hits up against the top. I’m hoping for enough room to put a Raspberry Pi 3B+ below, with one of their touch sensitive displays above. I could use either a small bluetooth keyboard, one of the roll-up bluetooth keyboards, or a small USB-wired keyboard, too (I’d need to route USB extensions from the Pi up to the panel).
- Depending on which radio ends up in the case, I’m thinking about a Mobilinkd KISS-TNC, that bluetooth couples to either my phone, or to the Raspberry Pi, and could be used for watching APRS beacons at an event.
- I also need to disable the blue lights on the switches. They’re a small draw, but for a long run they’re a waste of power… I could either disable them, or put another single switch on the panel that controlled power to the LEDs. Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I’d find a set of switches without the LEDs, and utilized less real estate.
Wiring diagram is attached so you can see how it all fits together (it’s done with the future-purchase radio in the wiring — current setup just has them going to the panel-mounted powerpoles).
