What was that thing

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     Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my ongoing projects. We had been away on a family vacation, and as usual when coming back from a vacation, the job that pays the bills had some things piled up that need to be dealt with, so I ended up putting in a couple very full days.  With that thought though, here is a superfast update on where my projects stand:

• The home shack is stalled - waiting for me to finish some work in the addition we recently (okay, maybe not so recently anymore...) did, before I can get back to finishing the basement.
• The mobile shack is in the middle of a CB getting put in.

     I'm hoping to get the CB install finished by the end of this week, so that I can move on to "Phase 2" of the mobile install.  Once I get started on that I'll post updates, and let you know exactly what "Phase 2" is, but for now here's a teaser.  It has something to do with the 2 sheets of MDF plywood that are now sitting in my garage next to my table saw, and this thing:

     So what exactly is this thing?  About a year ago, this was a project I put together.  It is, in theory, a go-kit that I built.  If you happened to look at my QRZ profile though, you'll already know two things:

1. I called it my "porta-station" because it was too big and heavy to "go" the way most people think of a go kit.  It's more like moving a heavy shipping container.
2. It doesn't exist anymore, because I took it apart (insert frowny face here)

  My porta station started out as me wanting a way to have a fully functional station that I could put in my car and take with me on trips - it did work for that, it was just HEAVY.  Mainly because it had two 50ah batteries built into it, so that I could essentially run for a couple days without power.  Also built into it was a power supply, and a charge controller/DC load switcher that would automatically charge the batteries if it was plugged into AC power, and automatically run off the batteries if no AC was present.
     In the center of the beast was, from top to bottom, a small RF patch panel for switching between the various antenna connectors that I mounted across the top of the box, a row of switches for turning the various parts on and off, a small power outlet panel that had a volt meter, usb charger, and standard 12v automotive power connector, and the always important fuse block.
     The left side of the monster had (some of this stuff is internal and can't be seen in the picture) a Raspberry Pi computer with a 7" display, a mesh node, my 857d, the matching LDG tuner, a port audio patch panel, and external speaker with a separate amplifier and volume control.  Running on the Raspberry Pi was a custom command line rig control software that I wrote in Python.  Between the mesh node and the rig control software, this not only made this a porta-station, but one that I could use remotely, through a hammesh network.  The software was actually a school project (did I mention that I go to night school on top of all this other stuff?!) with the idea that I was building a drop and run emergency relay radio station, so I had a justification for putting this whole thing together - it was educational!  
     All of this goodness was build into an army surplus medical chest, in which I installed an aluminum frame (my first brazing project!) to hold all the stuff, topped off with a plywood panel to make the face.

     So why take it apart?  It was nice because it had everything in it I could need or want in a portable station.  That was also the problem.  Sometimes I didn't want all the stuff.  For some trips it was too big to take depending on what other equipment (actual work equipment) I needed to fit in the car.  I needed something more modular!

     Someone clever might be able to figure out that what I must be scheming is a go-kit version 2.  But how does that tie in to the start of this rant - my mobile shack Phase 2?  Maybe you just figured it out...

Leave a comment and let me know if you think you have an idea of what I'm up too...