[hpsdr] Pandora Update: another potential enclosure.

[Ben Hall]

Good evening all,

I've been rather quiet lately, but things continue to proceed on the 
prototyping for the Pandora Enclosure Concept.

Part of the work I've been doing has entailed exchanging e-mails with 
the folks at Buckeye Shapeform, seeing what sort of cases they have. 
(Note that I've not abandoned the Ten-Tec BK-959, just seeing what else 
is out there as some problems re: shielding have been identified with 
the BK-959.)

At Buckeye, my first choice, the XPAND-A series, has turned out to be 
way too expensive.  The size I had in mind was going to run about $125, 
which was too much.

Buckeye recommended an E-series case, but this type of case involved 
putting the HPSDR into an extruded aluminum tube that would require the 
entire "guts" of the HPSDR to be "slid out" to allow for 
servicing/modification.  That means you've got to disconnect all the 
cables, etc., to do any work on it.

I'm now pursuing a semi-custom E-series case, which you can take a look 
at here:

<http://www.buckeye-enclosures.com/product_overview.php?subcategoryid=24&applcation=A>

What do y'all think?  Any immediate down-sides that y'all can see?

It's semi-custom, as it is assembled from off-the-shelf extrusions. 
We've got several choices in width/height (I'm thinking 9.6" wide, 5.7" 
tall which seems to be a good fit) plus a nearly unlimited selections of 
depths.  The webpage lists only 6" or 8" depths, but I've confirmed with 
them that any depth up to 15" is possible.  One downside of the BK-959 
is that if it is stuffed with a full complement of 220mm cards, there is 
no room for front-panel controls.  With the Buckeye case, I think I'd 
choose a depth of 10 or 11 inches.

Thoughts?
-- 
Thanks and 73,
Ben, KD5BYB