This guide is to give you ideas and solutions to Building up a nice containerized deployable radio kit as seen on Video Demo

Radio Configuration considerations before starting. Email me if you have questions KH7O

As of January 2010 commercially made panels are now available for those who want to save hours of drilling and cutting a rack panel as I made my first radio kit prototype seen on youtube.. Several designs to choose from, email me if you would like to purchase a panel.

Black anodized aluminum 3mm panel with holes for the pelican 1450PF  panel frame. Starting with this is a lot faster, neater and easier to develop your own design.

Black anodized aluminum 3mm panel with cutout for the West Marine fuse panel this is a commercially milled panel of the green kit below. Same one as seen on my youtube video. Holes for AC power switch, and AC fuse, holes for 80mm fan(s) suited for your own design.. you may use them as vents only with fan grills or place a fan on top or underneath the panel in the pelican case.

Black anodized 3mm aluminum panel with hole for fuses, internal and external source, DC loads, AC source and multiple use 80 mm fan cut outs. TNC options

This is what it would look like with readily available switches and fuse holders from Radio Shack.  Radio can be mounted to the top of the panel or remoted inside the case with just the control head on the top and additional holes you would need to drill for the antenna and microphone if radio is mounted below deck.

• This is a finished revision of the green kit below, some preferred more  because it has a heavier duty DC control panel as its all one piece
• Commercially milled black anodized 6061 aluminum panel 3mm thick. 
• Kantronics KPC3 APRS/Packet TNC inside with extended DB9 serial connection on the front panel  to easily connect to a computer.
• 12VDC switching power supply 
• Separate DC power switches and fuses for Radio, TNC, and AUX DC out.
• Floating anderson power poles in the back of the radio for AUX power out and External 12VDC power in
• Internal/External DC source switch to select internal power supply or external DC power input to the kit
• Forced air cooling for the power supply, note: this is the same panel in the picture above except I choose to mount the radio external to the panel so the wiring is going through the second fan hole in the panel.
• Pelican 1450 case
• Pelican 1450PF panel frame to mount front panel.

Power is the first requirement of operating in emergencies or under field conditions. Many have overlooked the need or availability of power in adverse conditions. Will you have commercial power or generator  power available or are you limited to battery power?  Plan this out first, no power no communications simple as that.

Antenna and Coax Get the highest gain and most practical for transportation and setup. Generally a short Diamond X50 dual band antenna is nice, home made J pole for 2 meters or if going point to point a short  2 foot UHF yagi has fantastic gain. In any case the careful selection of the antenna and coax combination is more important then the radio in the kit.   DO NOT try to build a kit with the antenna and coax in the same case, that is not practical because the first time you take it out or get it dirty it will be mixed in with your clean radio kit that should be indoor operation and dust free. The coax loss / distance should be calculated, if you have a long run you must use low loss LMR or other cable or you will loose all your signal before it even gets to the antenna.  Use a Coax calculator or read the manufacturer specifications.

Radio  Select a radio that will fit the case from where the panel frame hold the panel to the inside of the top lid. You may have to get a couple of  L brackets from the local hardware store to mount to the panel.

Completed kit using the parts below. Fuses, switches, fans and other small parts needed can be found at your local Radio Shack or Electronics Part store. The small parts used in this kit were all purchased from Radio Shack to keep it simple. Take your time to do the measurements to make sure everything clears the depth and clearance to the perimeter of the panel where it mounts to the rail which is very important.

  ICOM IC208 or any other mobile that will fit in the case. You may need to use L brackets found at all hardware stores to mount the radio to the rack panel or take a thick piece of aluminum flat stock and bend it to form a new lower mounting bracket if needed. Holes were drilled into the rack panel under the radio heat sink.

West Marine Meter and fuse panel  part number 195490. It was cheaper for me to buy this panel and do a coarse retrofit to the rack panel then to spend numerous hours to "attempt" to do precision drilling for the switches/ fuses/ meter / accy jack/ test switch.  By using this particular panel only little wiring was needed.. Instead of having the main power feed from the Bus through each switch /fuse to load, I wired it opposite so the radio is actually on the main bus, the external power to a fuse switch,  internal power  supply DC output feeds into one of the fuse/switches   and the third fuse switch is a fused/switch output should something external of the kit need 12 volt power whether it is another radio or accy its up to you.. Just remember not to overload the the power supply with the total load.

Rack Panel from DIGIKEY.  make a template using the Panel frame below and cut this panel using a "good" jig saw . Then rough cut the square hole for the West Marine metering panel where desired, drill the other holes for switch / fuses not on the West Marine panel. Also the rim will need holes drilled to mount to the panel frame.  Drill all holes before mounting anything to the panel.  This panel was one of the better ones I liked compared to others purchased. 

Pelican 1450 Panel frame kit, mount to inside the 1450 case with hardware provided, then mount the Aluminum panel  to this frame after mounting radio and all other parts related to this project. The panel frame kit comes with O ring seal.

Pelican 1450 case,  be careful in choosing a radio for this case, the lid clearance to the panel is 1.75 inches, most radio mounts are a little bigger. I had to use corner brackets found at a local hardware store to adapt to the radio but it was no problem, may have to drill a couple of holes in the bracket for whatever radio you are using.  I could have bought special brackets but wanted to keep the price down at the same time. 

  Samlex SEC 1223 power supply mounted underneath panel approx under where the radio is mounted.  Used small L brackets commonly found at all hardware stores to make the right angle mount between power supply and rack panel. Take an old desktop computer or monitor AC cord  and cut off the plug side, use the pig tail to plug into the back of the supply and wire it through a separate switch and fuse mounted to the panel, use heat shrink to protect all electrical from being exposed,   just remember when wiring Electrical cords that "black" is hot and "white" is neutral and "green " is ground..