Courtesy of Matt, W0MSJ
OPTIMA YellowTop gel cell battery 75ah:
- Gel cell for safety, will not spill acid or vent explosive gasses.
- YellowTop is Optima’s deep cycle type battery (lower amps longer life) which is better for radio work than a traditional starting/lighting/accessory type automotive battery (higher amps shorter life)
- 75 ah because it was conveniently available at Costco
- Automatically and intelligently maintains the battery at full charge so it will always be ready to go
- Simple battery charger the size of a large wall wart
- Capable of re-charging a dead battery (slowly over the course of a couple days)
- Available at HRO
Role up type J-pole dual band antenna:
- Good performance
- Ultimate for portability
Kobalt brand tool box:
- Solid steel construction
- Simple classic design
- Just large enough to hold the Radio, battery/charger, antenna and a few accessories
- Inexpensive, available at Lowe’s
The components will be permanently mounted inside of the tool box to form a simple, sturdy, self-powered portable station that can be taken to a shelter or other location and be instantly operational. In time I hope to add a power supply, rapid charger, and-depending on need-possibly another battery.
Other thoughts:
- Though I like the Icom IC-208H its lowest power setting is 15 watts. Another model with a lower 5 watt setting would be more battery friendly.
- There is a vendor that shows up at hamfests with dirt cheap sealed led acid batteries that are used medical device back up batteries. They are high quality batteries that sat connected to a battery tender in a hospital monitor for a year and where replaced due to contractual requirements but are essentially new. They are smaller than an optima battery which means one would be highly portable and several would be a lot of backup power.
