A few years back I read an after action report from a group of hams who provided Emergency Back-up comms for a Rural FD. The hams had to spend their weekend in their car with their mobile radio because they didn’t have a portable, full power station that could be manned inside the Fire Department. I’m still amused when I consider those guys sitting in a stuffy vehicle…
I was also inspired to build a solution, much like many others have. The original box consisted of a VHF Radio, a SLA Battery and a MFJ Micro 12v Power Supply. Later revisions left off the battery, while others did without the Power Supply.
Over the years I’ve built many versions of this set-up, sadly only the original was photographed-with an old phone camera.
This is the Plano 1612 Ammo Can found here on Amazon or all across the Nation at most Big-box and Sporting Goods Stores. I prefer this can due to it’s lager than some/smaller than others approach and it’s integrated lid compartment for adapters and other necessities.
I grew up in a cabinet shop and Wood is my primary choice of building material. Some may prefer metal or plastics. Whatever works best for you-use it! In this case I cut to size 2 pieces of 1/2 plywood for this project, but have also used small cutting boards for the same purposes of mounting the radios and equipment. The Small IKEA cutting boards work well and offer a built in handle as a bonus!
This top piece is cut to fit in the lip of the top of the box. The rig is mounted with it’s included bracket to the board and is suspended upside down while the box is closed.
You will notice the Tee Nuts and Bumpers used on the bottom of the board here. That protects most surfaces from scratching if you use the radio outside of the box, on a tabletop for example. This sort of thing can easily be found at a local hardware store.
The 2nd piece of Plywood or Cutting Board is cut to fit in the bottom of the Ammo Can and has the Power Supply mounted there with Tee Nuts and the battery held fast with a tension strap.
The MFJ 4115 Power Supply was plenty large enough for this use. Please note: the fan runs constantly on my example and that may or may not bother you?
You can see the board with MFJ Power Supply and 12v 12ah battery installed and down inside the Plano Ammo Can.
Here is the bottom board after a coat of paint with bumpers installed for use outside of the box.
As mentioned above the premise of this kit was to allow an operator a full power-and nearly self sustaining station away from their shack. In it’s purest form this is what the station would look like in use.
I’m all about redundancy when it comes to these things and I was a huge fan of the Old Kenwood TM-231 rig! This was later replaced with the current production TM-281, which still happens to be my favorite VHF mono-band rig!
Here is a broader view of the box as presented.
All of the parts used as shown. Bottom Board on the Left and Top Board on the Right.
I use and recommend Anderson Power Poles for all of my 12v connections in and out of the shack! The Power Poles allow for a QD solution to change and reset your power options as needed.
In December of 2019 I sold all of my TM-281’s I had accumulated over time. There were 4 complete boxes built utilizing the above system. I had built these units for ‘hand-out’ shacks in case of an Emergency with an ARES deployment. Some were built as Winlink nodes, some for APRS, others were just the Rig in a box.
I hope you find this project entertaining and inspiring.
73 y’all
Cale/K4CDN
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