I would think you might leave the good looking heat sink in the open as it can do little good without air circulating past yje heat exchange elements. I have done this before and with more costly radios as a remote base so as to take advantage of a 600 foot tower space offered me and the unit has a 40 mile or so coverage area with ONE WATT RF out and is totally reliable,though not 'full scale' on the RF meter. A Christmas Card module provides a good IDENTIFICATION to keep the tiny (30 Caliber ammo box) repeater legal and functioning ...NEW batteries were needed after 6 years and I used "D" cell 8,000 NiMH cells.