John, AC6BR was having some problems with his radio and had to send it to be repaired. While it was being repaired, he borrowed the Club Go Box so he could continue to check into the various county ACS nets, and to continue to work CW on the various Ham bands. The first thing he noticed was some of the radios would not power up. He checked the wiring and found that some of the power pole connectors had come apart. He and I did some troubleshooting on the Go Box and found other problems, such as the packet system did not work and there was a power drain on the battery with all systems off. John repaired the power pole connectors and continued to use the Go Box until his radio was returned. This is when I took the Go Box to do some further troubleshooting and maintenance. Figure 1 shows the original Go Box Configuration.
One of the first things I noticed was there was no access to the back of the ICOM 7300. I was planning on setting up the 7300 to do some digital modes but I could not get to the computer interface connector. The AC power input box, shown in Figure 2, which also housed the DC power strip and the EPIC PowerGate Battery interface units, was blocking access to the 7300. At this time, I decided it was best to remove all the shelves from the box and draw out a schematic and consider relocating some of the equipment for better access. Figure 3 shows the three shelves removed from the Go Box.
I noticed the 7300 computer interface cable was attached but the wires were under the tray and you had no access to it. I also noticed that the computer input cable to the KPC-3 Packet modem was also located under the shelf. This is when I decided it might be nice to have the 7300 computer interface and the packet interface located on the front of the Go Box. I looked at the bottom front panel, shown in Figure 1, and noticed there was room for a USB computer interface connector. There was also some room to install a CW key/paddle connector on this panel which would make it easier to just plug your key/paddle in here instead of going to the back of the 7300. John was able to take the panel and drill the required holes to mount the two new connectors. The upgraded panel is shown in figure 4.
Next, I decided to place the two Alinco radios on the center shelf and add the KPC-3 Packet modem to the shelf. Figure 5 shows the new center shelf.
When I powered up the Alinco and the KPC-3 to check if the packet system worked, I found out that the cable between the KPC-3 and the Alinco was not wired properly to transmit digital information between the two units. I cut the cable and used clip leads to configure the cable. Figure 6 shows the clip leads between the two ends of the cable. The Alinco manual showed two configurations for connecting the packet cable. One was for 1200 baud and the other was for 9600 baud. Since the KPC-3 was configured for 9600 I used the 9600 drawing for wiring to the Alinco. The radio was now receiving packet info and transmitting it to the KPC-3. However, the KPC-3 was not transmitting data to the Alinco. I decided to use the 1200 wiring configuration to see if it would work. I found that the KPC-3 was now transmitting data to the Alinco but was not receiving data from the Alinco. I decided to use a combination of the two wiring configurations and was able to get good packet communications.
Next, I decided to work on the 12 volt power distribution system. The original center shelf of the Go Box had the battery booster and the speaker for the ICOM 7300 as shown in Figure 7.
I removed the speaker and .relocated the battery booster to the back of the shelf and made this the top shelf of the new configured Go Box. The Epic Power Gate and the 12 volt power strip were relocated to a new rack shelf in the bottom of the rack as shown in figure 8.
The two switches on the bottom front panel, shown in Figure 1, were originally connected to the power strip. And when turned on would provide power to the meter and the front panel Power pole connectors. The meter was only wired to read voltage. I decided to rewire it to read both voltage and current. My first attempt was to wire it to the output of the battery booster but this approach did not provide a current reading, not sure why, still investigating that. My next attempt was to wire directly at the battery. This provided both battery voltage and current. It does not show the actual voltage going to the radios from the battery booster but still gives you a good indication of battery condition. The switch also controls the 12 volt power to the Go Box, so there is no longer a power drain on the battery when the switch is off.
With relocating the radios and the 12 volt power components there was about 5 inches of empty rack space on front of the rack. I decided to install a speaker for each of the radios so it would be easier to hear the audio. I ordered a special panel that had three speakers and would fit the empty space. Figure 9 shows the final configuration of the revised Club Go Box
Figure 10 shows the schematic of the revised Club Go Box and a copy has been attached to the back door of the Go Box.
