HAM Go Box

[KE5QVT]

I just finished building a go box for my radios and installing some antenna on the roof of my FZJ80.
I am a member of the Houston ARES or Amateur Radio Emergency Service and needed a portable and durable way of carrying my radios for deployment. I also want the ability to use them in my rig when ever I go cruising on my own or camping with the scouts.

I bought a pelican case model #1430. It has a carry handle as well as a shoulder strap. I installed an Icom IC-7000 for HF and an FT-8900R for UHF/VHF.

The antenna on the side of my truck is for the HF rig and is a military surplus manpack radio antenna for 25-35 freq band. After installing I ran an SWR test and its running 1.1 in the 10meter band with no tuner.

The standard dual band mag mount on the roof, runs about 1 on SWR.

 

[tmac]

Nice work. That is a fine looking set up.:victory:

 

[PhulesAU]

Sweet:wings: How do you eliminate/ overcome the echo chamber effect? since I don't see forward facing speakers. Headphones?

 

[Spikepretorius]

You could just leave your HF antenna tied down like that. We run our vehicle mounted HF antennas tilted over at an angle all the time. Usually towards the back though

 

[xtatik]

Nice kit.
You may want to incorporate some PowerPoles into your source power scheme. It's the standard power tap for ARES.

 

[KE5QVT]

Sweet:wings: How do you eliminate/ overcome the echo chamber effect? since I don't see forward facing speakers. Headphones?

so far I have not had a problem with echo effects... I do have a splitter plugged into the back so I can run headphones if I want to.

 

[KE5QVT]

You could just leave your HF antenna tied down like that. We run our vehicle mounted HF antennas tilted over at an angle all the time. Usually towards the back though

While I was in contact with someone, i did start to fold down the antenna. I started to lose contact right away. My only assumption is the I was pounding the pavement with RF instead of broadcasting...

any other ideas?

 

[KE5QVT]

I also added an LED strip light inside the top. If you look at the photo with the radios it is a noicable red strip. Once I flip the switch located on the upper right inside corner the strip lights up with a solid red LED. Makes seeing charts logs etc much easier..

 

[LostSoul]

very cool set up!

 

[dzzz]

Cool
Any way to protect the exterior attachments? You may be careful. I would break the connectors.

You could just leave your HF antenna tied down like that. We run our vehicle mounted HF antennas tilted over at an angle all the time. Usually towards the back though

That explains the brain damage.....

 

[Spikepretorius]

Depends on your distances. We are in a mountainous area. Some of our guys discovered by accident that they got better comms with stations relatively nearby by using the antenna tilted over. It's now become the norm here.

In the photo spot the antenna on the middle vehicle tilted back and spot the antenna on the right hand vehicle tied forward. These vehicles are all part of HAMNET emergency communications and the photo was taken on our way back from a SAR training exercise

 

[PhulesAU]

Spike, look into a CAP hat for those verticles. But tipping backwards is CHEAPER!!!:coffeedrink:

 

[DaveInDenver]

Spike, look into a CAP hat for those verticles. But tipping backwards is CHEAPER!!!:coffeedrink:

Cap hat wouldn't make a difference so much in radiation characteristics as increasing efficiency. IOW, sticking a hat on a shortened vertical is just helping overcome the lack of radiating length a little so that the tuner or matching network is dissipating less energy (i.e. you are lowering the radiating resistance). In this regard they have a very legitimate use.

But pulling them down is common in the military and it's not to minimize overhead clearance. Changes the take off angle and makes the incident wave into a much more ideal NVIS. Near Vertical Incident Skywave, meaning it basically warms the clouds and changes HF propagation to cover very local stations, within a few hundred miles, rather than DX. You can achieve the same effect by lowering your dipole very close to the ground, under 1/10th of a wavelength above ground. Either way you take advantage of the fact that the F-layer of the ionosphere is very good at reflecting HF energy.

 

[KE5QVT]

I will have to try again. I tried it pull them down while in contact with someone. And it seemed to lose the signal. Im really not sure why. I assumed because of the direction of RF but if you guys are getting hits while pulled down there has to be something to it.

With regards to the militay, I do know we ran our hummer a lot with them tied down but I wasnt a HAM then and had no idea why. I assumed them just for clearance...

 

[Saratoga]

Excellent kit there, especially using the Peli case for the radio's. I've mostly used ammo tins for power packs with the radio in the LR. When I can afford more radio's I'll probably make up a portable unit with a powerpack built in and with the ability to carry it. The red lamp is also a good idea. Think I might copy some of your ideas

One of the things we have at work are LED downlighters. They're built into the side rail next to the driver and point down at switches next to the drivers seat. I guess you're red light does that for you

Only working in 2m/70cm at the moment but hopefully in a few years can afford another radio. I'm in the UK equivalent of ARES.