Stereo Solutions for an Ice House

[duck2]

I have largely completed my 7' X 9' permanenet house, incorporating numerous suggestions which I have received from the sage community of hardwater heroes who frequent this site. Now I am trying to come up with a stereo solution which will not cost me an arm and a leg. I see autombile radio/cassete decks at yard sales all the time and would like to be able to use one. However, I would also like to be able to play CD's as well. I have a boom box which could fill the bill, but it requires AC power and I would like to avoid the power gobbling power inverter with its annoyingly noisy fan. Here are my requirements, perhaps someone could offer me a suggestion:
Play Cassetes, CDs and the radio

The speakers can stay attachched to the walls, but I would like to be able to remove the player/radio if possible.

Power the unit(s) from the 12 volt outlet on my ice house wall.

Thanks

[Crow Hunter]

In my fishhouse, I have a car radio that includes a cassette player, wired to a power amp/equalizer that has an input jack; I use a portable walkman style cd player that plugs into the power amp. You can run the cd player with the radio off, just the amp powered on; saves a lot of juice. I connect to the headphone jack on the cd player, and control the volume with the control on the cd player. Nice speakers from radio shack. It all runs on 12 volts. Deep cycle batteries last me a long time.

[Chris-Neises]

I'm thinking about adding a ACDC DVD/TV combo. I'm guessing most will play CDs as well.

[Farley]

My 99 Ranger has a CD/Tape/Radio combo, I dont know if you could find one at the junk yard or not, but they are out there.

Crow Hunter seems to have a great idea with the radio/tape player and the walkman cd player.

[Sled Head]

Interesting topic... The only problem with a car stereo is usually they don't have both CD/tape. What I have is a small boom box that runs off 8 "C" batteries or 110v. If you have a 12v outlet, take the male end of a cigarette lighter and splice it into where the batteries go, connecting + to -. Remember you must have the batteries in to complete the connection. Hope this helps!

[This message has been edited by Sled Head (edited 08-28-2004).]

[Tahoe2349]

Build a "portable" box for the units the size of the decks. Cut the faceces out foe each deck and buy a couple cheap $10 installation kits. Slide them in the face openings and the decks.
Run a 12V male pig tail out the back of the box for power and speaker terminals or wires as well.

Cheap quick & very portable

[jt24]

Maybe this is to much but what about Sat. radio? My buddy has one and its pretty cool with all the different stuff on them. Can listen to what ever ya want without that annoying static and searching for channels. Used it in our fish house the last two years and i wouldnt want anything else except maybe a CD player but i can live without that.

[woodyjdh]

A Friend of mine uses his portable DVD player (the kind with the flip up screen), hooked up to his portable AM/FM/tape player, this way he can play CDs/DVDs/Tapes and radio. Kind of extravagent, but when they aren't biting it'll keep you occupied!

[Bryce]

Had a 95 Chev truck that had the set-up you're looking for. Tape in the main radio with a seperate CD player. Two individual units but connected. Check your local salvage yards as I would think a bunch of 95's have been retired. Build a box to mount them in and rock on.... Hey.. fish on.

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IBOT's # 17 & 248

[Crusher]

I went for versatility when I chose mine. I wanted something I could use at home/boat/work and ice fishing. I got the new "Bosch Power Box" job site radio w/CD player/4-way GFCI/Battery Charger/12-volt cigarette lighter plug-in (great for the cell phone!) and an auxiliary plug-in for MP3 Player. It runs off the battery that it charges and best of all, you can take it home when you leave the fish house and not leave it for those not so nice people who like to take things that don’t belong to them.

Crusher

[duck2]

To all,
Thanks for the many replies. Should I go with a car radio/cd or tape player, will I need to rig up some type of external antenna in order to get decent reception?

[Philo]

I agree with JT24, I have satellite radio in my truck and it is great. I am thinking about purchasing a boom box for ice fishing. It isn't free like regular radio, but I got a deal when I activated mine and I think I ended up paying about 9 bucks a month for 15 months. Not needed so much in the metro where you have several radio stations to choose from, but when you are on LOW, the choices are pretty limited.