Build Ham Radio Go Box

The idea of a portable ham radio station satisfies the needs of the Ham Radio hobbyist and the use of Amateur Radio for communications in times of emergency. The hobbyist may enjoy making contacts with other Hams from remote locations. It doesn’t matter what the motivation, the convenience of having all your radio equipment stored safely, and easily transportable just makes sense. Couple the go box with a 12v battery, and a BuddyPole antenna system and you have a complete and portable Ham Radio Station.

I recently visited my family in Florida and assisted my brother in law with building his Ham Radio Go Box design project to realize his concept of what a portable Amateur Radio Station should be.
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The main issues were to have all the equipment:
• conveniently accessible for use
• transport the equipment safely
• provide safe storage
• be easily reconfigured with future acquisition of new equipment

Radio Go Box Case
Some research led to Gator cases. The Gator case used for this project turned out to be a perfect solution. The Gator case satisfied all the requirements and is reasonably priced too.

The UT4 model is a standard 19″ equipment rack that can accommodate four shelves. The shelves used are half depth, about 13″, and have a universal mounting hole pattern that makes it easy to mount any equipment mounting pattern.

The Gator case will become a complete portable radio station in a box.

You can tailor your go box to your personal preference but here is the equipment list used for this project.
The Gator case is already reasonably priced through Amazon.
Search Amazon for “Gator Cases Pro Series Rotationally Molded Rack Case (4 Space)” It is also available at other vendors.
Equipment List
• Gator case
• Astron RS-35M power supply
• LDG IT-100 antenna tuner for the IC-7100
• Diamond SX-600 SWR Power Meter
• Speaker
• Icom IC-7100 transceiver

The electronics items are available through DX-Engineering, Ham Radio Outlet, and you can also find them on EBay. For convenience and price matching here are links to all the components on Amazon to build your radio station in a box.

The benefit to buying through Amazon is the no questions return policy and in many cases free shipping. If you aren’t already an Amazon Prime member then you are missing out on some great benefits, features, freebies, and did I mention free shipping! Check out the benefits of Amazon Prime.

Installation tip – Others have used this same model of Gator case and cut the shelves to install one from the front and one from the back. We found that it is possible to slide one shelf in from the back and one from the front but install one upside down. This allows the shelves to overlap and eliminates the need to cut the shelves. An important tip should you desire to change equipment or configuration in the future.

A standard home wring ground buss fit the rack mount hole spacing perfectly and still let the Gator case cover fit.

Braided copper cable was used for grounding inside the case.

The IC-7100 has HF and UHF/VHF capability. External SO-239 antenna connectors were installed in the case. The connector installation makes it easy to connect the HF and VHF antennas and looks professional.

Anderson PowerPole connectors are used for DC power.

The Go Box can be powered from the Astron Power Supply installed in the case or from an external 12 VDC battery.

A Power Gate automatically switches from battery to AC power.

The selected DC output from the PowerGate feeds a RigRunner DC distribution and fuse block.

4 thoughts on “Build Ham Radio Go Box”

  1. Many thanks to my brother-in-law Charles. He provided many hours of his time and expertise to this project. It turned out far better than I could have done on my own. “73s” K1YPF – General Class

    Reply
    • great go box.i seen it on amazon does it come with the racks or did you have to buy separate? and where did you buy yours from thanks bob/k0taz

      Reply
      • Sorry it has taken so long to reply.
        The Go Box and shelves were purchased at Sweetwater.com a music recording and DJ equipment supplier. The box we used is about as perfect as you can find. Just the right size and super strong. The shelves were overlapped rather than cutting to size. Makes for a very strong assembly and allows for changes in the future.

        Reply

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