RH1 Radio Cup Holder

Why does a radio need a cup holder? I agree it’s a bit odd. But this isn’t a product that involves a cup. Rather it uses a cup holder.

Almost every car now has a cup holder, but they are all different sizes and locations in the car. Some are large for bottles, others are small for a small coffee. Some are in the door, others are in the centre console of the car, while others are half under the dashboard. Unless it is the same model car, they all seem to be a bit different.

One thing I’ve noticed is a cup holder is never the same size as a hand held radio. What are they thinking! As a radio operator you would think they would build cars to house our radios! Seriously though, cars hardly have any space for much extra.

My current car has almost no space to mount a radio at all. I have a radio that has all the controls on the microphone because of this. I also have a hand held radio that sits on the center console between the two front seats. But this is far from ideal as if I have to brake suddenly, the radio goes flying. Not ideal!

I saw this cup holder radio bracket that is adjustable and fits into a cup holder. It is very adjustable and fits sturdily into a cup or bottle holder.

At the top of the swivel, you can attach a fixture to attach any hand held radio via its belt clip or attach a small remote head radio via its bracket.

Once it is all secured, it works well. Now I have a hand held radio in my car, that doesn’t move around the car. It’s legal and sturdy plus I can see the screen when driving.

The other advantage of this device, apart from how easy it is to install and how versatile it is, was how easy it is to remove. So if I’m in the car for the day, or a year, I can take it out when I am done and return the car the way I found it.

Installing

Here are some quick steps how to install this device.

  • After unpacking the box, get the RH1 cup holder.
  • Attach the Angle-Adjusted Connector to the top.
  • Attach the Handheld radio holder to the Angle Adjustment Connector. Alternatively, you can attach your radio attachment plate to the Angle Adjustment Connector if using a remote head radio or light weight radio.
  • Place the RH1 in your cup holder and twist so it expands to a firm fit in the car.
  • Adjust all the available angles from the bottom up to your desired location, then tighten each angle once set. Make sure it does not obstruct you driving the car or your view.
  • Attach your radio
  • Start using your radio!

Yes it is that easy! See the video as I do it.

Purchasing Tips

If you go via this link, you will get a discount:
https://radioddity.refr.cc/bensangster then search for your product you want.

https://www.radioddity.com/products/radioddity-rh1-cup-holder-radio-mount

Other reads

  • Zastone D9000 Number Lock
    I purchased this radio from a friend, and it worked well. He hadn’t really used it, so I did a factory reset. This was a bit of a mistake, as it did a few things like turning everything…
  • Yaesu FT-620
    The Yaesu FT-620 (and its updated version, the FT-620B) is a vintage amateur radio transceiver designed specifically for the 6-meter band (50–54 MHz). Produced in the 1970s, it offers support for AM, CW, and SSB (USB/LSB) modes, making it a versatile rig for its time,…
  • Yaesu FT-225R
    The 2m band has always been an interesting one for me. It used to be swamped with pager interference, but it actually is a great band. Inversion allows your signal to travel long distances at times, especially on…
  • Yaesu 857D
    A great radio that does all bands up to 70cm. Using all modes also you can talk on SSB on VHF and UHF. If you haven’t done SSB on 2m and 70cm, then I’d encourage you to do…
  • WizNet DMR
    The WizNet DMR app is still in beta testing, and at the time of writing this, you have to not only have a currently have a licence as an Amateur Radio Operator, but approved to be part of…
  • What does this Antenna do?
    Have you ever had an antenna and forgotten what it is for? Maybe you have been given one and wasn’t told exactly what it was used for. I got given an antenna at at ham fest because it…
  • Welle.io
    Welle.io is a DAB and DAB+ software defined radio (SDR). It runs on Windows, Linux and embedded devices like the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3. You can find the program and where to download it from their website.…
  • Welcome to the site
    Hi there from Down Under, Melbourne Australia. Thank you for visiting my radio web site. Below is what items by category is available on this web site. Thanks again for visiting. This web site is still being built,…
  • VK3AHR Ron
    Today (20/06/25) I head Ron, VK3AHR, on the 7.100 40-meter net. I understand he ran this net for over 7 years, but hasn’t been able to for the last few weeks due to bad health. At 10am this…
  • VARA – VARAC
    Ever heard this sound on HF / VHF / UHF? I know I have more and more recently. After a bit of research, someone told me it was VARAC. https://www.varac-hamradio.com/ As I understand it, the project started with…
  • Using an Android TV Box for Ham Radio
    If you want to get onto Digital Radio for less (way less) than $100, then you may be interested in this. I have Apple equipment, and therefore miss out on a lot of the testing apps that are…
  • USB Device Error PL2303HXA
    I went into the device manager and found the error, my cable no longer worked. This same issue happened to a USB Card reader also.…
  • Upgrade to OpenGD77
    This page is just a help to friends I have spoke to who are interested in upgrading the Radioditty GD-77 to the OpenGD77 software. This is not my work, however I really do appreciate Roger and his team have done to put this together. I claim no responsibility if it breaks your radio, however I have not hear this happen now in some time. I am not an expert at all with OpenGD77, I have just put this together to help people who have asked me how to do it.…
  • Updating GD-77 Firmware
    Updating the firmware on the GD-77 can be daunting, as you can easily “brick” your radio. So be extremely careful. Make sure you understand why you are updating your firmware first. Since there is the option of “Bricking”…
  • Treehouse
    An unusual name, but a catchy name no less, just like Peanut that was written by the same person, David PA7LIM. If you like Peanut, then you will like this project also. This project, like Peanut, includes some amazing coding and thinking.…
  • The Radio Box
    How do you stop a hand held radio from falling and being damaged? Do you sometimes put the radio down on a bench or desk between overs or while you are waiting for someone to call you? Some…
  • The History Of Yaesu
    As licensed Amateur Radio operators, we have all heard about Yaesu. We have all seen a Yaesu radio and most of us have used and even own one. I’ve had and have several Yaesu radios. From extremely old…
  • The History of Ham Radio
    A good friend of mine, Mike VK5ZC, put the information below together and asked me to put it on my web site. He has spent a lot of time putting it together with pictures and videos, so I encourage you to have a good read.…

Portable Hot Stop with Battery Pack

The new OpenSpot3 has come out with an internal battery. You might ask why? Well there is two common issues that is mostly raised with almost all hot spots. One is the range – I have addressed this in my BlueDV post if you want to make your own long range hotspot. However the other issue is it isn’t very portable.

I have two OpenSpot2 hotspots and enjoy them very much. I can cross modes easily all by using the one radio. You used to have to get one radio per band which was a lot more expensive. Anyway I can take the OpenSpot2 in the car and plug it into the car battery and run it via my mobile phone which works well. However what if I want to go for a bike ride or walk without the car?

The main issue is not having the battery of the car when you walk or ride your bike. This is perhaps one reason why the OpenSpot3 has an internal battery. For the rest of us, you can still do it.

Below is a picture of my setup. I took this picture in outback South Australia. At the top of the picture is a small pocket size battery which actually has two USB plugs, so I could plug in my HotSpot and my mobile phone. It even has a torch on it and has a lot of charge (15,000 mAh 2.4 Amp) so it wasn’t the cheapest one available. I could have gone a lot cheaper however we also used this battery pack for other things while we were in remote Australia for several days.

To the left of the photo is my GD-77, my hotspot and my phone. With this setup, I was able to talk the world!

Some other reads you may enjoy

My Radio Diddity GD-77

Starting in digital can be a little overwhelming to start with, no matter how many years you have had your licence. I even had a digital scanner for many years prior to starting in the digital world of Amateur Radio.

After working out what digital radio is, what you can do on it and how it worked, I then started researching what equipment was required.

According to other reviews at the time I was looking, many people claimed that the RadioDitty GD-77 was the best value for money.

My Radioditty GD-77 while on holidays
My Radioditty GD-77 while on holidays

After a month or so of using the RadioDitty GD-77 through repeaters, I purchased an OpenSpot2. I did a lot of research prior to this, and had settled on the OpenSpot1, however when I went to purchase it, only the OpenSpot2 details. It happened to be the week it was launched, so there were no reviews available at the time.

Currently my digital setup is very simple, it just has:

  • One hand held radio, the Radio Ditty GD-77, this came with charger, USB cable and remote microphone
  • OpenSpot2 Hotspot. This came with a power cable.

With this simple setup I am able to talk the world via

  • The BrandMeister network
  • The Australian VK-DMR network
  • Other DMR networks around the world, eg New Zealand, Canada etc
  • YSF Reflectors
  • C4FM
  • NXDN Reflectors
  • SharkRF servers

The above is just to name a few networks. Each of the above networks range from a few Talk Groups, to thousands upon thousands of them from all over the world.

In 2019, my family went for a huge five week trip through outback Australia. We went to some of the most remote parts of the world. We had to carry a lot of water, food and supplies. We also had to carry extra battery power to charge fridges etc. I would have liked to have taken a HF radio with us given the outback probably didn’t have a lot of interference, however we simply didn’t have enough room, or power.

Instead we took a very simple setup, my GD-77, my openspot2 and a small battery back that ran my openspot and mobile phone. Even without power, I was able to talk the world with a little mobile reception or wifi.

Many people have many radio’s for different networks, making it hard to keep updated, and obviously cost a lot. My digital setup costed far less than it costed me to get on 2m/70cm many years ago. And did I mention, this radio also does analogue, so yes, you can use this radio on 2m and 70cm simplex or via the repeaters and no one will know you are actually talking on a digital radio.

The only down site is it is a little hard to program and navigate the channels. The radio is built for commercial operations, and not really for amateur radio, however it can be done. Commercial operations usually have a small number of talk groups or repeaters/frequencies, where as amateur radio uses a lot. However once you nut it out, it isn’t really that hard.

You might want to upgrade to the OpenGD-77 though as it is a lot easier. I show you how to do that here.

Other things to read

Here are some other posts I have done on similar topics