Building Rugged RF For Outdoor Installations

[Scott Elliott]

I'm looking for tutorials or other guidelines to build up my outdoor RF box that can be left outdoors for an extended time.   I'm looking for some engineering informed practical guidance to the craft of moving from a bunch of strung together bench components to a solid and trustworthy outdoor prototype I can set and forget.  I'm finding a lot of "here's what I built" types of videos, but not a lot of prescriptive instructions.  What little I am finding is old HAM wisdom for way down in HF.  

I have a ton of nitnoid questions that I would hate to inundate this list, such as glands vs bulkhead, mounting hard connected components that have different height, mounting to heat spreaders, etc.  I guess I'm trying to short circuit doing detailed engineering for every bend radius, etc, when anyone skilled in the field know that you just do X or Y.  

Thanks,

-scott

[Andrew Thornett]

Hi Scott,

I would say inundated this list with them! Your questions are relevant to many of us and equally the answers from the experts here will also help a lot of us, now and in future.

Andy

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Scott Elliott <mounta...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, 06 July 2026 17:47:36
To: Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [SARA] Building Rugged RF For Outdoor Installations

 

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[Wende Waters]

Hi Scott, 

Whit in Alaska has so much equipment, well documented; what's his website? I can't remember but someone else will. 

Good luck! Wende 

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[Scott Elliott]

Wende,

Found Whit's amazing site https://reeve.com/RadioScience/Radio%20Astronomy%20Publications/Articles_Papers.htm#Shop_Practice Thanks.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sara-list/CAE5nwrdCK4rG%2BbqGzhQ5kpS4oxz7P%2Bw8fBzqegn1C%3D00NZ%3DSJA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Wende Waters]

Hey Scott, 

You're very welcome. I hope you will send us pictures and documentation when you are finished. 

Wende 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sara-list/CAFwoZ%2BzXy7antiTGOy7bjSGA0ZRaYaVwhEnwSWB_Rxu%3D6PkvsQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Art K]

Wende,

I bet you are referring to:

https://reeve.com/

Whit’s publications within the above site are listed here:

https://reeve.com/RadioScience/Radio%20Astronomy%20Publications/Articles_Papers.htm

Were you thinking of any specific publications that reveal practical network assembly planning, and weather hardening?

Cheers!

Art

 

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From: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Wende Waters <bera...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2026 13:17
To: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara -li...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SARA] Building Rugged RF For Outdoor Installations

 

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[Wende Waters]

Hi Art, 

Not really (although Scott seems happy for now). I just hoped that was a good place to start. Whit has done so much, so well - I would have moved there and followed him around like a disciple if it wasn't for the extreme cold, and the mosquitos, and the high murder rate for women. 

Wende 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sara-list/PH7PR22MB5040A0422BF6B01F755D4793F0F12%40PH7PR22MB5040.namprd22.prod.outlook.com.

[Stephen Arbogast]

Hi Scott,

What  exactly  is your   objective?

Do  you want  to design  your  own  RF  PCB?

Do  you want  to buy  existing modules  and put them into a weather  proof  box?

A few  years ago   I  started with this  weather proof  box  and it has  worked very well...    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B87WGR6L?th=1

I  designed  some  pcb's using   Kicad  and  JCBPCB to make  and stuff  the pcb.  I found it is  cheaper  to buy  existing modules.

If  you are interested in 21 cm Hydrogen Line  a  good place to start is with  SARA's Scope in Box   or  The  Discovery Dish with  Discovery LNA.

A  good  rule to follow is place  the Now Noise  Amplifier  as close as  possible  to  your  antenna feed and all digital electronics  as  far away  as possible  from your  antenna.

It is  difficult  to answer  your  questions  without  knowing  more specifics.

Stephen

[Stephen Arbogast]

Correction   JLCPCB   does a  good job of making your  pcb   from Gerber  files  you  export from  KiCAD 

JLCPCB      https://jlcpcb.com/

KiCAD         https://www.kicad.org/

Stephen

[Stephen Arbogast]

If  you are  looking  to  design  your  own  board,   for  Hydrogen Line,  here are the docs for the  Quorvo  chip   used in  Discovery  Dish  Feed   LNA...

https://www.qorvo.com/products/p/QPL9547#documents

Much  easier  and  cheaper to  buy  the  Discovery Dish  Feed    from  Crowd  Supply.

Stephen

[Stephen Arbogast]

Your   antenna  and front end are the  most  important.....    

What is  it that  you  want  to do?

Stephen

[Scott Elliott]

Stephen,

I guess I'm trying to build a Swiss army knife.  I have a nice collection of bits and bobs, but dragging it outdoors, fitting it in a plastic tub for a few hours is a hassle, I end up with stress from the antenna lead and crimped SMA jumpers when I leave my bench,  Currently I need a bunch of usb cables that end up getting covered with a blue tarp, etc.  Just not sustainable.  I'm trying to make one box with my sdr and the core rf blocks that I can lay proper power and data lines to and leave outside permanently.  I have some comms and other projects that I want to make use of the box so I am adding a PA and some other building blocks, but I want to  be able to default it back to more passive activities like doing drift or eventually steered scans as a full time background task.  Sure I may have to swap out a filter or antenna now and then, but at least I can place it and forget it.  Right now it feels like an expedition to roll stuff out.  I'm willing to put in a bit more effort to get it to build a onetime rugged, solid and low-noise solution.    

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[Don Latham]

I'd just go down to goodwill or another and get a courtesy of the NMTech kitchen utensil container group.

 

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Don Latham
PO Box 404,
Frenchtown, MT, 59846
406-626-4304

 

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From: Scott Elliott <sc...@mountainlogic.com>
To: sara-list <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 8 July 2026 2:35 PM MDT
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Building Rugged RF For Outdoor Installations

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sara-list/CAFwoZ%2BwkOSr6q%3D3yFE_2pnRWgTAF19NXw5q%3DhgUpxqc0rQ%2BkMw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Stephen Arbogast]

1. Buy a weather proof box preferably metal for rfi,  but plastic is cheaper. Mine has a pegboard board which  you can hot glue or zip tie stuff to it.

2. Put all your analog electronics in it.

3.  Mount it as close as possible to your  antenna feed.

4.  Keep all digital electronics far away from your  antenna, in your house for example.  They generate rfi.

5. Test and make adjustments....... repeat.

[Don Latham]

Amazon...bread pans with lids for example

 

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Don Latham
PO Box 404,
Frenchtown, MT, 59846
406-626-4304

 

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From: 'Stephen Arbogast' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
To: Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 8 July 2026 4:21 PM MDT

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