I’ve seen several ham radio clipboard mounting solutions aimed at portable operations like POTA and SOTA, so I thought I’d take a shot at making my own for my QRP Labs QMX, American Morse Equipment Mini-B Paddle, and NiMH battery pack (affiliate link). I took an old clipboard I had laying around, flipped it upside (as KQ9L did), and drilled a few holes around the QMX and paddle. I then got some elastic strap from Michael’s (here is a similar option on Amazon; affiliate link), and cut it long enough so it is tight around the radio and paddle, and tied it in the back. Note that for the paddle, I do still have to hold it with my other hand when I’m sending, but it keeps it in place when I log or tweak something on the radio. For the NiMH battery pack, I simply stuck some velcro strips on it and the clipboard to keep it in place.
This is a more ergonomic way to use your portable rig when sitting on the ground against a tree or in a chair without a table. The elastic does seem like it might stretch out over time but replacement is easy enough (I probably only used a foot or two of what I bought). You could also use some industrial velcro or magnets instead of elastic to hold things down. I plan to use my setup both on a tabletop and in this configuration, so I preferred not to have velcro on the bottom or magnets bolted on my equipment. The paddle also has a tapped hole on the bottom for affixing to a base which could be used here too, although screwing and unscrewing a small bolt in the field isn’t appealing to me.
