Portable preparations


I have been really enjoying working with the you kits HB1B and have used it most days to make a QRP CW contact by the bedside station or out portable. So far I've been using a 12v SLAB as a power source but it has proven to be a pain to carry around with such a weight. I emailed you kits to see if I could buy an internal battery pack and was told this is not possible because of shipping issues. What to do? Make my own...

I found lots of great information online and set about making a 18650 lithium battery pack to put inside the rig but the more I learnt about balanced charging the more I felt this should be a consideration so I also purchased a small PCB from an eBay seller that allowed balanced charging and voltage limit on discharge too. It was not hard to make a pack that charged nicely from 12v and allowed me to fit the whole thing internally. 


Please ignore my messy bench but here is the pack and control board as I soldered all the connections up. I did a dry run on the bench and all looked good so I put the pack inside the HB1B and started to make contacts around Europe. The pack can provide as much as 12.6v at full charge. 

All was good but I needed to make going portable easier, I wanted a nice Peli case but couldn't afford to spend that kind of money on a whim so went looking for what I had stored away to "make do." I discovered an old case that once held spares for my aquariums and soon stripped it down to basics and set about looking for any foam I may have laying about. This is naturally where being a hoarder helps and soon enough I found some suitable foam and plastic to make inserts and set about filling the case and making a secure holder for my basic portable station, the radio, key, charger, ear buds, coax, plugs and antenna. 


Here are a few images to show how I managed to cram everything into a small space and keep it secure. All I have to do now is get out portable and enjoy the summer. 
73 - M0TEF





Comments

  1. Yankee24 May 2016 at 06:04

    Greetings, This is YD9RSG, Nice Tutor bro, And happy portable trip for you..!!

    my blog on https://seragolf.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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