NØEQ Repaints the Yaesu 857D
... A Mil-Spec Paint Scheme 857?
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Background Here's a photo of my original rapid deploy case. It's a 4 space padded rack case, like the audio guys might use. Slid into the rack case, but not bolted to the rack, is a rack shelf, again typical audio stuff. My Yaesu 857, tuner, meter, clock, key etc. are all mounted on the sliding shelf. This original case/station is in all original colors. The Yaesu radio, LDG autotuner and meter, and the rack shelf are all basic, flat black. The custom headset interface is a raw aluminum Hammond box, like the guitar guys use for FX stomp boxes. |
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Modern Day Green Radio Here is the finished product after repaint. The project is detailed below. But essentially what I did was remove the covers from the gear, and/or mask the areas I didn't want to paint. The paint I used was Krylon Ultra Flat Camo OD Green. It's the same paint I use for nearly everything, including my van (in other camo colors, besides green). Here's how it went - |
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Begin the BeGreen! This the empty rack shelf that will hold the radio and related equipment for the portable, rapid response station. The two allthread rods are part of the hold-down thingie that will secure the radio and tuner. Those threaded rods are anchored with regular hex nuts below, and T nuts above the floor of the shelf. Note the area around the bolt holes is ground free of paint. I used a Dremel to do the grinding. The stuff in the photo BEHIND the shelf is part of my collection of pipe, conduit, golf clubs, tent poles and other future homebrew antenna components. |
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Grind Your Bottom Bare! Here's the same shelf, under side view. paint ground from bolt holes. Hefty, sharp toothed star lock washers with both internal and external teeth. The underside has not been repainted olive drab (yet) in this photo. I scraped the paint before repainting because the existing black finish was some VERY tough, baked on, wrinkle finish enamel. I'll usually grind ground points to bare metal, then paint, then grind again. That makes for a neater paint job. The metal shelf serves as an excellent ground buss. Sort of like the ground plane concept in printed circuit board construction. |
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Coax Switches The two position switch needed a little elevation to allow room for the coax to the four position switch. I made a 1/2 inch spacer from plexiglas. Switches, like everything else are bonded to ground with bolts. 
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Add more components Sort of like engine components in a modern automobile. The bottom layer of devices has to be installed before the upper layer, in order to get them all to fit. Here I've added the audio/PTT breakout box and local time clock. The digital UTC clock with thermometer/hygrometer now resides on my clipboard/log. The two open holes you see in the shelf base are not used in this iteration of the station. All of the holes were drilled with cheap Uni-Bits from Harbor Freight. |
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Add Meter The LDG combo meter went on next. It's mounted to the SIDE of the case with the same 1/4"-20 bolt/allthread scheme that I used for everything else. That required a simple JB weld and nut on the inside of the meter. While at Harbor Freight, I also picked up a set of three, ratcheting box end wrenches for five bucks. They are bright color plastic handles (easy to see in the desert) and the 7/16" size fits all the bolt heads and nuts on all the 1/4-20 stuff I used in this case as well as everything else I build. |
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Even a Radio!..;-) Autotuner (bottom) and radio (top) mount with a piece of aluminum angle stock across the top. Angle is held in place by simple nuts and lock washers on the allthread rods. There is a piece of foam rubber between the tuner and the radio (not visible here) that cushions the radio a bit, angles the face up and allows access to the 3.5mm jack on the bottom of the radio face. Difficult to see in the pic is a short piece of braided ground strap on the right side of the radio, bolted to the radio on one side, and the allthread rod on the other, to ground the radio. The LDG tuner has it's own ground stud on the rear. |
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Now Add Wires Here it is in the same stage as the photo above. It is now ready to receive all of the various cables, wires, coax etc. that tie it all together. The space between the tuner and the large coax switch will contain my paddle. That's shown in one of the photos below. Also shown in one of the photos below is the power meter, mounted on top of the radio. That keeps tabs on voltage, current etc from the external deep cycle battery. |
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QRP All the Time I think twice in my life I've dialed the power up to anything above QRP. But essentially any time you hear me on HF, I'm five watts. Some times I'm in a QSO and other stations ask "Why only 5 watts?" That always seems like an odd question to me. You're hearing me so why would I need more..;-) I've worked nearly all states and dozens of countries on 5w including Asia, Russia, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii, and most places North and South America. You can see a map of my contacts by clicking HERE |
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Wired and Working Here's the finished, rebuilt, repainted station, powered on, antennas connected and working. The headset is a David Clark helicopter headset. I've replaced the original low impedance dynamic mic element with a cheap, RatShack condensor element. Bias for the mic is provided by a little preamp inside the audio breakout box. The device on the coiled cord on the far right is my PTT switch. It's also a David Clark aircraft part. Upper far left is a clip on LED reading light. It runs for probably 40 hrs on a couple of AAA batteries. Olive wood and brass paddle is in the middle, to the right of the tuner. |
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