I was going to rant about the ARRL again today, but I think that even I might have reached my limit on complaining about our “national association.” So, instead, I’m running this gues post by Ed, K8MEJ. He wrote, “I know you also have an IC-7300 so I thought you might be interested in what I wrote below.”
I like to operate portable, and I try to be very careful to wrap up my radio(s) so they don’t get scratched up, or worse, suffer damage. In particular, I’m very careful to protect the front knobs. They are expensive to repair, especially the optical encoder behind the tuning knob.
Side rails/handles are made to help with this, but until recently, I hadn’t found anything that really fit my needs. A number of people make so-called “tactical” side rails, but for one reason or another they didn’t work for me. Then I found these “seitengriffe” (side handles) from Südhartzfunkcenter Sondershausen.
I don’t even remember how I stumbled across them, but I’m glad I did. Here are the winning features for me:
- They fit my IC-7300 perfectly and the side openings allow me to continue to use my ICOM carrying handle. I couldn’t find any other rails that would do that.
- The front handles curve outward, allowing plenty of room for fat ham fingers to turn the tuning knob, plug in the microphone, etc. Most rails I saw didn’t curve outward like this.
- The ears on the rear protect the connectors
Here are some photos:
The downside is I couldn’t find a U.S. source for them, and their website is entirely in German, which I unfortunately don’t speak. However, a quick email to them is enough to complete the purchase. I paid 50.94 Euros (approximately $58 USD) via PayPal.
i use Rose’s custom cases for my Elecraft KX3/P3:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-mX9LCZ/
She doesn’t do these for any other rigs, except I’ve noticed that she used to do covers for popular solid state linear amps that folks were using with their Elecraft gear, but now that Elecraft have both the KPA500 and KPA1500 out, I’d say that the SPE, Accom, etc. folks might be out of luck.
The reason I bring her stuff up, is that her approach is custom foam inserts for the front/back of the radio, which protects the front knobs and rear connectors, then insert the assembly into a nice sturdy padded cloth bag. See the site above for lots of pictures. You’ll get the idea.
You might wish to show them to someone you know that is handy with sewing heavy cloth goods, to see if they could custom-craft a cover and/or carrying bag(s) for you.
Dan, I know you’ve seen my carrying bags for my K3s/P3 at Field Day, so you know what they entail. One of the best investments I’ve ever made.
Hope that helps,
— 73, Dave, N8SBE
I found the DX Engineering has those type of side rail handles. So you can get some just like them in the USA.
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-ic7300-angl