Over the years, while involved in the radio scanning / amateur radio / ultralight DXing hobbies, I have used a number of different bags and cases for carrying my radios and associated bits and pieces. Some of these bags and cases have worked very well, others have not for various reasons.
I have again returned to my love of portable operation, this has meant finding a suitable carry case or bag for my radios to undertaken these activities in parks and other locations while keeping a low profile.
Based on my experience in the past, I decided to move away from a soft bag like I have used recently and started looking around for a hard case. This needed to be big enough to hold my UBCD436PT scanner, aerials, chargers, cords, ear phones and spare batteries but I didn't want to go to a "Pelican" type case due to cost and sizing options, plus they scream "expensive stuff inside", much like camera bags do. I needed to go for something that looked cheap and not valuable but which still provided a good level of protection.
Recently I was at our local Kmart store, they had put a heap of "back to school" items on clearance, including an $8 lunch box, down to $1, for that price I grabbed one as I liked the size of this and the only thing lacking was a way to keep my radio protected. I had an idea of a way to do this. On my home I called past Bunnings and grabbed some foam wrap, red cloth tape and a small piece of metal I could use as a divider.
A few nights later I spent some time in the shed setting this up. The first step was to cut the foam sheeting to go around the metal divider I then used some double sided tape to mount the foam to the case and then wrapped it in the red cloth tape. I then bent the ends of the divider and bolted this to each end of the case. I then spent some time sorting my various radio scanning accessories and setting up space in the case for them all.
Overall for less than $5 and an hour of my time, I have a case which provides a good level of protection to my UBCD436PT radio scanner, it looks about as "low profile" as you could get and it was cheap. Nobody would pick it from the outside as anything other than a lunch box, just how I like it.
I have again returned to my love of portable operation, this has meant finding a suitable carry case or bag for my radios to undertaken these activities in parks and other locations while keeping a low profile.
Based on my experience in the past, I decided to move away from a soft bag like I have used recently and started looking around for a hard case. This needed to be big enough to hold my UBCD436PT scanner, aerials, chargers, cords, ear phones and spare batteries but I didn't want to go to a "Pelican" type case due to cost and sizing options, plus they scream "expensive stuff inside", much like camera bags do. I needed to go for something that looked cheap and not valuable but which still provided a good level of protection.
Recently I was at our local Kmart store, they had put a heap of "back to school" items on clearance, including an $8 lunch box, down to $1, for that price I grabbed one as I liked the size of this and the only thing lacking was a way to keep my radio protected. I had an idea of a way to do this. On my home I called past Bunnings and grabbed some foam wrap, red cloth tape and a small piece of metal I could use as a divider.
A few nights later I spent some time in the shed setting this up. The first step was to cut the foam sheeting to go around the metal divider I then used some double sided tape to mount the foam to the case and then wrapped it in the red cloth tape. I then bent the ends of the divider and bolted this to each end of the case. I then spent some time sorting my various radio scanning accessories and setting up space in the case for them all.
Overall for less than $5 and an hour of my time, I have a case which provides a good level of protection to my UBCD436PT radio scanner, it looks about as "low profile" as you could get and it was cheap. Nobody would pick it from the outside as anything other than a lunch box, just how I like it.
