Drawing from my Air Force days of half-century ago, I've refined my "Jump Kit" concept to include several "Go Boxes." The photos are of my recently completed "Radio Box." The design objective was to put a station in a box that can be quickly disconnected from power, ground, and antennae, close it up, load it up, and take it to a mission site.

I've accomplished that for a basic radio station (HF/VHF/UHF).

The equipment included in the "Radio Box" is as follows:

> Kenwood TS-430A HF radio
> Kenwood TM-D70 Dual Band Radio
> MFJ 948 Tuner
> MFJ-4245MV Switching Power Supply
> MFJ-269 Analyzer
> Rigrunner Power Distribution Panel
> Antenna Switch (I use the antenna sw. for tuning purposes, not actually to switch antennas.)

For my "Digital Box" ie. Winlink, I have a SCS PTC-IIex Pactor 3 modem, an old Toshiba Satellite laptop computer and a Canon BJC-240 printer . The actual box hasn't been built yet. Of course my Jumpkit also includes: tool box, accessories box, and personal items box (bag.)

Additionally, I have an ICOM IC 2100 VHF radio, a Yaesu VX -7R Handheld tri-bander, and a mobile unit consisting of a Kenwood TS-2000 with the RC-2000 Controller and Hustler antenna with 75 meter, 40 meter, and 20 meter resonators. I have a three-way adapter to mount all three resonators on the same mast at one time, but it gets top heavy. For the most part, I just keep the 40 meter resonator on. In addition to the Hustler, I have a copper J-pole VHF/UHF (homemade) antenna and a 40 meter Hamstick dipole (a la Ed Cravey). I've been seriously considering buying a 75/40/20 SATERN antenna, but I have not been able to confirm the usefulness of the design. It's made by Radiowavz in St. Louis, MO (actually Lake St. Louis).

I don't know if the results of my experimenting will give anyone else any ideas, but if anyone wants to draw from my ideas, it's public domain as far as I'm concerned. I'll be happy to discuss what I've done and what I have planned with anyone interested.

BTW the box is made of 1/4 inch plywood reinforced on both sides with one layer of bi-directional fiberglass. The walls and shelf support joints are all joined together with 2 inch BID tapes in the corners. The shelves slide in and out and the Radio, Tuner, and Power Supply are fastened to the shelves by means of fiberglass "brackets." It's painted outside with grey fleck stone paint and with flat black enamel on the inside. I use a folding luggage caddy to roll it around on. I will soon be installing a central ground bar in the box so that I'll only have to make one ground connection when setting up.

I'm very pleased with it so far. I tested it in a trial deployment during ARRL field day. Everyone who saw it was impressed. Hope I haven't bored you to tears by all this. Feel free to share any of this as you see fit.

God Bless.
Jim WA4REV

Updated 6-4-08