text/gfx: Tomislav Stimac

Turning Icom PCR-1000 into portable receiver
(for owners of Icom hardware control panel only!)

If you got yourself hardware control panel for Icom PCR-1000 available from here, turning PCR-1000 into portable is just a step away. All you need is external power supply and your PCR-1000 is ready to go with you. From now on you can take your PCR-1000 to nature, mountain tops, remote locations or use it for locating of manmade interferences (my favorite).

Lets take a look at Icom's specifications first. Supplied voltage should be 13.8V +/-15%. Current drain is 0.1A for power on, 0.7A for max audio and 0.6A for stand by. I went to store to buy 12V accu battery and noticed two things. First, I couldn't find it that easy. Second, I was thinking about recharging and realized I don't have charger for this special 12V accu battery. So I decided to simplify things. Instead of one complicated battery I decided to use multiple 1.2V accu batteries. I had two big reasons for that. First, you can buy it in every electronic store. Second, you can recharge it with standard battery charger.

By connecting voltage sources in series, we increase the total voltage. If we connect 11 such batteries 1.2V each in series, voltage at output will be 13.2V and that is exactly what our PCR-1000 wants. The most simple thing I found in store is 4 battery compartment. It takes 4 batteries, and connects them in series. You should buy three of such compartments and connect them in series (as shown on image above). That way you will have 12 battery places in series. Since we need 11 places, one battery place should be bridged. That means, on one place, you will connect a wire instead of battery (look at that green wire on image below).

Finished power supply

The rest is simple. Find some box (available in most electronic stores) and put those three battery compartments inside, just like in the image above. If you don't know which power connector you need, simply take your PCR-1000 to store and ask for connector that can fit its 'power-in' connection.

Before connecting, take voltage meter, and measure the voltage at the output of your new power supply. It should be around 13.2V or probably a little bit more, as newly charged battery is always above 1.2V.

When buying accu batteries, make sure you buy NiMH, as they have best price / performance ratio. Forget NiCd, as they are el cheapo crap and I doubt how long they can handle 0.7A which our PCR-1000 wants most of the time. Second thing, make sure, the accus you buy are above (or at least) 1400mAh. While in the store, don't forget to buy 9V accu for PCR hardware control panel.

IMPORTANT: Do not put standard (non rechargeable) batteries in your power supply !!! Standard batteries are 1.5V. Eleven such batteries in series will give 16.5V on output!! I don't know about you, but I don't want to connect that to my PCR-1000. Too high voltage can damage PCR-1000 permanently so I don't want to be responsible in any way if your radio gets smoked.

Earphones, antenna, hardware controller, PCR-1000 and
finished power supply ready to go anywhere with you.