I purchased my HHI Contesting Console and Radio Pro from Halibut Electronics to use on portable POTA activations that my wife and I do together. She is recently licensed, and I wanted a more efficient way to do multi-op operations with headsets without passing a mic back and forth.
When I received the components: HHI Radio Pro, HHI Contest Console, User Pros, and the associated cables, I knew I had to make a few mods to make this a little easier for fast deployment with portable operations.
I started to 3D print a few designs that could encase the the two main components into a single unit, and then I went to bundling the cables into an easy-to-work with a harness. I used 1/2 inch PET expandable braided sleeving to bundle the main harness of power, headset, and 8-pin Icom mic cable).
I ordered a 6″ Shielded Cat6A 26 AWG cable to connect the two boxes together and built an 8″ Power Pole cable to pass the power from the Contesting Console to the Radio Pro.
Now I had a very compact unit that I can cable up quickly and get to operating.
I went through several iterations of 3D printing an enclosure. I tried versions with locking mechanisms to keep the two boxes from shifting back and forth, but ultimately, I landed on the most simple design that uses friction to hold them in place. I can add a thin piece of Scoth two-sided tape to hold things in place if needed. I am really happy with this thin/clean design.
Here is an action shot of us using the rig on my wife’s first POTA activation this weekend. It worked perfectly!
We had to work from inside the car as it was about 32 F outside.
If you want to print one of these cases, use the link below to download the STL file.
HHI Radio Pro and Contesting Console Portable Case STL File
It was printed with PETG / 2 Wall Perimeters / 15% Infill. I tried to print with 3 wall perimeters, but I found it too rigid to slide the devices into place. Two wall loops allow it to flex a bit while providing some friction.
If you don’t have a 3D printer, Aaron Scullin at Hitched4Fun.com can help! He has this and many other excellent ham radio and RV accessories.
This all fits very nicely into a Harbor Freight Apache 3800 case.
Now, I have a compact and quick-to-deploy rig to make multi-operator operations quick and easy!
Let me know if you have any suggestions to make things better!
Other Parts List
Thank you for doing such a great write-up on your use of OHIS for portable multi-op! I love seeing this stuff used in the field. 🙂
73 de N6MTS
Nicely done sir! Quick question, why do you need the HHI Pro, can’t you just connect your rig directly to the Contesting Pro utilizing a custom cable built to the OHIS standard?
The HHI Radio Pro is what connects my Icom IC-7300 radio (using the 8 ping round connector and the 3.5mm headphone cable) on one side of the HHI Radio Pro into the OHIS standard RJ-45 jack on the other side of the HHI Radio Pro. I use the short 6″ jumper to connect the HHI Radio Pro the HHI Contest Console.
Dale- I purchased a Contesting Console and Radio Pro from Mark this weekend at the SEA-PAC hamfest. Thank you for the print file and links. I’ll be utilizing all three. I can’t wait to put this to use at Field Day later this month.