so ive been meaning to do this for like two years now and after the storms last month kind of kicked my butt into gear, im finally putting together a proper go-kit. got a Pelican-style case from the hardware store, threw in my FT-857D, a little 20ah LiFePO4 battery, some coax, and my SignaLink for digital. also tossed in a laminated card with my local repeater freqs and the county ARES net schedule.

thing is i feel like im definitely forgetting something obvious. like i packed it all up and it looked good but then i remembered i had no way to charge the battery if im out more than a day or two. so now im looking at either a small solar panel setup or one of those jackery-type stations as a backup. anyone gone through this process and want to share what dumb thing they forgot until it was too late? feels like there's always something

headlamp. i know it sounds dumb but the first time i deployed for a real event i completely forgot a headlamp and was fumbling around in the dark trying to connect coax at like 10pm. had my phone flashlight which was just... not great. also spare fuses. i cannot tell you how many times ive seen someone's whole kit go down because a fuse blew and nobody had a spare. they're tiny, they weigh nothing, just tape a strip of them inside the lid of the case and forget about them.

the solar panel thing is worth it by the way. i went with a cheap 50w foldable panel off amazon and a small PWM charge controller and it's been totally fine for maintaining the battery on a 2-3 day deployment. not gonna win any efficiency awards but it works. also think about a notepad and pens, real paper ones, because when things get weird you dont always want to trust a tablet or laptop for logging

antenna stuff is usually what catches people off guard. like you might have the radio and the battery all sorted but then you show up somewhere and realize your mag mount wont stick to anything useful or your vertical needs a ground plane and the terrain is all wrong. i carry a cheap wire dipole cut for 40m that i can throw up pretty much anywhere with some paracord. takes maybe 10 minutes to get up and has saved me a couple times when the repeater was down or out of range.