Welcome to the wonderful world of Ground Stations section
What are Ground Stations ?
So what are they ?
What does a Ground Station consist of ?
How do i make one ?
What should i be considering ?
So what should i put it all in ?
You here a lot of people talk in the forums and mention all the time a GS or Ground Station. Lets look into the concept of a Ground Station. Its as clear as mud this subject unfortunately but hopefully you will get the idea of them as you read on.
A Ground Station is a term given to the equipment on the ground that receives the signal and processes it. Its a generalization.
We all know that from reading on this site its the receiver and antenna that receives the signal from the plane. The goggles or screen that displays this. But combined together and mounted in a package is what a Ground Station is.
What does a Ground Station consist of ?
Is it just the receiver and goggles ? No the term Ground station covers the arrangement and collection of equipment as one unit. It can consist of as many or as few a parts as what the user wants / has
Ground Stations cant be bought. The components can but the components installed into some sort of box, tripod or back pack then collectively become the Ground Station.
That`s the 64,000 dollar question. It depends what you have, what you want to put it in.
There’s no right or wrong way to go about one really, unless you position or mount antennas badly.
Every single ground station is different.
What should i be considering ?
Lets generalise a Ground Station, let say you you are starting off. You will need a Receiver, and Antenna, a power supply for the receiver.Goggles to plug into the receiver. This is the most basic component level of a Ground Station.
This will get you to the point of receiving and displaying the planes video to you so you can fly. Nothing more. All you need to do is have them so the antenna is mounted properly, the battery for the receiver safe and accessible to recharge and the outputs an channel selector of the receiver in an accessible fashion.
Put your components into on onto the Equipment you want to keep it in. This can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish.
My own first loosely named Ground Station consisted of just this. I had a Lipo elastic banded around my receiver, a rubber duck antenna direct to the receiver and that was it. It worked fine and was as basic as it got.
As you progress in the hobby, your Ground Station will grow in size and features. As you learn you begin to realise that certain antenna perform better at certain heights. You want a video recorder. You need to split the video signal. Maybe diversity is chosen. You get into antenna trackers, then you need to mount the tracker to something. Your Ground Station.
Now you have all these components which need putting into or onto something. Now thought has to go into your Ground Station. Now you can get as creative as you want 
Remember to ensure components run cool with sufficient cooling, everything with plugs you plug in or unplug often are accessible and all your equipments voltage ranges are catered for. Make sure you can charge or take out to charge any batteries.
So what should i put it all in ?
Whatever you want, the more lightweight and practical the better.
Some use tripods and have the equipment mounted to the legs with antenna on the top. Some are housed in boxes that mount to the top of the tripod. Others simply use a box.
Its up to you.