so ive been meaning to do this for probably two years now and after watching a pretty nasty storm roll through our county last month without being able to do much of anything useful, i finally decided to stop procrastinating and actually build a proper go-kit. right now ive got a Yaesu FT-857D that i was planning to use as the main rig, a 40ah LiFePO4 battery from a local vendor, and one of those cheap anderson powerpole distribution blocks. threw it all in a pelican knockoff case i found on amazon.

the thing is i keep reading different opinions on what actually needs to be in one of these and it gets overwhelming fast. some people are like you need a full satellite setup and others are saying just a handheld and a roll of wire is fine. im trying to hit a middle ground where im actually useful at a served agency or EOC but not lugging around 60 pounds of gear either.

so far besides the radio and battery i have a 12v to 120v inverter (small one, maybe 300w), a logbook, some coax adapters, and a basic antenna kit with a linked dipole. am i missing something obvious? i feel like there is something i keep forgetting every time i think about this but cant put my finger on it.

the thing you're probably forgetting is a way to actually charge that battery in the field without shore power. a small folding solar panel makes a huge difference if you end up deployed for more than a day or two. i went with a 100 watt panel and a cheap PWM controller and it's been fine for keeping the battery topped off during extended activations. also honestly dont overlook having a laminated copy of your local ARES/RACES frequencies and net schedules, sounds dumb but when youre tired and stressed at 2am you dont want to be digging through your phone.

the 857 is a solid choice for a go-kit rig by the way, runs pretty efficient and covers a lot of ground. only thing id say is make sure whatever case you settled on has decent strain relief for the cables because loose connectors have killed more deployments than bad propagation ever did, at least in my experience.

headlamp. seriously. everyone forgets a headlamp. and maybe a small fan if your battery has the headroom for it because sitting in an EOC or a served agency with that rig running gets warm fast and LiFePO4 doesnt love heat as much as people think. also a notepad separate from your logbook just for scratch notes, frequencies someone gives you verbally, that kind of thing. sounds minor until you dont have one.