{"id":2271,"date":"2009-07-22T03:28:37","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T09:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanantoniohams.org\/blog\/?p=2271"},"modified":"2009-08-11T15:19:26","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T21:19:26","slug":"emergency-go-kit-project-rolling-right-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sanantoniohams.org\/blog\/?p=2271","title":{"rendered":"Emergency Go-Kit Project, Rolling Right Along!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"N5NTG_Emergency_Go-Kit_1\"<\/strong><\/a>Our regular readers will remember a posting we made earlier (June 12, 2009)\u00a0about an <\/strong>Emergency Go-Kit Idea<\/strong><\/a> that involved some minor surgery to a Stanley Toolbox with wheels, by adding a couple of sealed lead acid batteries in the bottom compartment, a 12 volt 30 amp Pyramid power supply, a 300 watt DC to AC power converter, a home-brew battery charging circuit, etc.<\/p>\n

I’ve made some more progress on this project,<\/strong> adding an external on\/off \u00a0switch to control the exhaust \/ cooling fan on the side of the toolbox, and adding an external AC power plug on the other side to make it more convenient to plug in\u00a0up to two\u00a0AC devices to the emergency go-kit toolbox.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, I suppose you could use a power strip to plug in more, but the circuit is limited to 15 amps and the converter will only handle 300 watts.\u00a0 I’ve labeled the exterior plug warning of the limitations, and also have a surge reset button mounted nearby.<\/p>\n

I’ve also decided not to mount any specific ham radios permanently inside the top section of the toolbox<\/strong>, unlike some other go-kits that I’d seen other hams build\u00a0in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all<\/strong>, the radios I might choose to deploy might be pulled out of my vehicle or house, rather than using the spare 2 meter only radio that is currently residing in the box.\u00a0\u00a0 Or I might need to use a radio provided by another ham operator or agency.\u00a0 I don’t know if I’d only be using this for primarily VHF\/UHF local operations or HF net operations, so the radio may change over time.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, it would likely be more comfortable for the operator\u00a0in the long run, to put the radio on a table top and sit in a normal chair, with a power wire leading back to the go-kit next to the table.<\/p>\n

I’ve got\u00a0two more ideas about possible features to add<\/strong> before I declare it ready to deploy, such as:<\/p>\n