Icom 705 Backpack by GI1MIC

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

This is a work in progress
I could not justify the cost of the ICOM LC-192 for my IC-705 radio. So instead I decided to adapt a low cost (£23) “sling” camera bag.
A sling bag is one that can be carried on your back or swung round onto the tummy. A special side flap allows access to the bag without removing it.
The bag I selected is a generic one measuring 26.515.344 cm (10.3" x 6.0" x 17.35"). In the UK it is available from Amazon and goes under the names of “CADEN Camera Sling Bag” or “BAIGIO Camera Sling Backpack Waterproof Camera Case”. It the US you can find it by searching Amazon for “Camera Sling Backpack Camera Waterproof”
Oher than physical size the important point to verify before purchase is that the selected case has Velcro over the bulk of its interior surface. Some of the lower cost bags only have a couple of strips to hold the interior dividers in specific locations.
With the case in hand attaching the 705 to the interior is accomplished with a simple rectangular plate cut from some spare Perspex. This was covered in Velcro and then screwed to the bottom of the 705 using the mounting holes. The plate is material is non-critical so long as it can hold the weight of the 705. Personally, I have some worries about using Perspex since it could crack, and I might remake it in 3mm aluminium sheet at some point.
To cater for an external aerial, I created a simple cable egress hole. To stop the bag fraying round the hole I created a 3D printed gland to clamp the padded fabric of the bag. The gland is held in place using four M3 screws of a suitable length. The design intention was to clamp a rubber grommet between the two halves of the gland to create a watertight seal but not work as well as I had hoped. As designed you could use a chassis mount BNC socket if that is a better solution for you.
For cutting a hole in the bag I used a scrap bit of 15mm copper pipe (plumbing pipe) , heated it up and pushed it through the bag at the required location. To ensure the hole was exactly where I wanted it, I fitted a sacrificial gland to the bag and burnt the hole through the middle of it.
Since I plan to use a Bluetooth headset/handset one antenna hole is enough for me but there is nothing stopping you from adding more as required.
I still need to create another plate to hold a portable telescopic antenna like the MFJ-1899T but that should not be that difficult and I will probably use the mounts from
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4639976