I don't recall the exact age but it was after i came home from the Military and i was in my early 20's (early 1980's) that i built my first and only mobile boombox which is the predecessor to today's suit-case stereo, it was plywood box i had made with hinged cover for access, inside the box was single DIN H/U and i think it was a Blaupunkt Miami but i don't recall, anyway the radio was installed in the front and there was a small MB Quart 2-channel amplifier inside the box along with a pair of 5.25" coaxial speakers one mounted of each side of the box, aside from that there was only a power connection on the backside where you would hook up battery power.
After learning that amps got hot and suffered from thermal shutdown i cut a hole in the top of the box along with some vents in all sides then mounted a computer fan in the top and wired it through a step-down transformer (12V to 6V), it was high tech back in the day and would still be pretty savvy..
The reason i built the suitcase boombox was for my trucking job, the trucks had no stereo to speak of back then and only a power terminal to hook-up your cb radio and i already had a deep appreciation for music so that truck driving job was my inspiration for the mobile boombox, i would venture to say i was a pioneer in the creation and development of what we know today as the suitcase stereo //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
When and what was your first portable boombox?
