Crowd Funding The Perfect Survival Radio?

[gil]

I don't dislike the 817 mind you... I might yet buy one, if only for the 2m and 70cm bands in SSB.

Gil.

[Andywragg]

How about approaching Farhan (of BITX40 and UBITX fame) with regard to 'hardening' the UBITX for the/our intended use? As far as I can tell, the UBITX fulfils most of the radio specific goals, with the exceptions being the enclosure and battery.

For me having an internal battery is a negative attribute, as typically I'd want a number of battery packs that are easily swappable. No point having a radio you can't use cos the battery is flat (in the field away from charge facility or in the middle of the night when there's no sun to solar charge).
I speak from experience here as a former military signaller, experienced in pretty much all the PRC 3** Clansman range. Whilst these are bombproof radio's I wouldn't want to lug one (HF Variety) around as a civvy due to the weight of the pack and the cells.

When funds allow I shall be getting hold of a UBITX and looking to source a suitable field style case in which to install the guts of the radio.

[scarr]

Farhan is an RF wizard - he'll design and build the magic circuitry, but it's probably for another enterprising soul to make rugged aftermarket cases - there are nice desktop cases made for other members of the BitX range: https://amateurradiokits.in/store/metal-enclosures/

Ideally I'd love stackable components what would click on to the case e.g. ATU/Battery/amp/empty cases to roll your own add ons.

As others here have found out - loose wires are a pain in the butt and prone to failure in the field/backyard.

[gil]

The uBitx would indeed be a good candidate for boxing up in a military grade case.

Ideally I'd love stackable components what would click on to the case e.g. ATU/Battery/amp/empty cases to roll your own add ons.

Definitely. My PRC-320 works that way. You clip the battery on. Also the PRC-351, with a bolt-on tuner and the same battery.

Writing Farhan is a good idea, I will do that.

Gil.

[Andywragg]

I just ordered the uBITX. It's on backorder so it will be a while before it arrives.

As for a case/enclosure.........

So of the builders  are using a cheap plastic case off Banggood for less than £10. I might get one of these and wrap it in Gorilla tape, after running silicon sealant over all the long joints.

[scarr]

That's great Andy! I have ordered one too. Over time I'm hoping to be able to put a tuner, NESCAF filter and battery in the case, so the only wires outside will be for the key, headphones and antenna

I've got an aluminium tin that came with a present, which I'm going to use as the test enclosure. If everything works and goes well with that, I'll look at getting something a bit more solid afterwards.

The tin is gold coloured, so it's going to look eh.... interesting...  even without my dodgy slicing and dicing for the display etc 

[cockpitbob]

For what it's worth, there are two 3D printable cases for the uBITX on thingiverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2745287
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2732866

I've made a couple cases for RF stuff on my 3D printer.  For shielding I line it with copper tape.  This makes for a very light enclosure.  12feet of 1" copper tape is only $3 on banggood.com.

[Andywragg]

Thanks Bob.
Just out of interest, how much does it cost to print a box?

[cockpitbob]

Thanks Bob.
Just out of interest, how much does it cost to print a box?

I have a 3D printer and for the common materials (PLA or ABS) it's about $0.75/oz.  It's even cheaper than you might think because for areas of an item that have a lot of volume you tell the printer software to fill the areas with honeycomb of whatever density you want.  I use anything from 20% "infill" to 100% infill.  It saves weight, materials, print time and you lose very little strength.

Printing is a slow process.  I think printing all the parts for a uBITX box would be about 15hrs of printer time.  That's OK since it takes 5 minutes to set up a print, then I just let it run over night.

[Andywragg]

How big is your printer?

[cockpitbob]

This is the one I have.
https://robo3d.com/products/r1-plus-3d-printer
I got it 2.5 years ago mostly for my "engineer from birth" son.  I paid $850 for it.  It's print volume is 10" x 9" x 8".  Of course you can make bigger things in multiple pieces and glue them together.  Printers keep getting cheaper.  There's $250 kits that take about 6 hours to screw together that work very well(sorry I can't remember the names).

Bare in mind that there's no magic in these printers and often not a lot of difference between the $300 and $1,000 ones other than a pretty enclosure, display and no need to be connected to a computer.  They all have a heated print bed, 3 axes of stepper motors, an extruder and a controllable print cooling fan.  Most use the exact same set of Arduino boards and software to run them.  The good ones are a bit more accurate because they are stiffer.  The expensive ones use guide rods bigger than 6mm, but my printer with its 6mm guide rods does great work.