so ive been meaning to do this for like two years and after the last storm knocked out power for three days i finally got serious about it. got a pelican case (well a cheap knockoff from amazon but same idea) and started stuffing things in it. right now i have my ft-817nd, a roll of coax, some spare connectors, a small swr meter, a notebook and pencils, and im working on getting a decent portable antenna situation sorted out. thinking either a roll-up j-pole or maybe a small trapped vertical i can stake in the ground.

battery situation is where i feel lost. i have a 20ah lifepo4 battery that came with a little bms and it seems fine but i have no idea if thats enough for a full day of operating or even what i should be calculating for. mostly SSB and maybe some winlink if i can get that working on battery. also do you guys keep a printed frequency list in your kits? seems low tech but i keep thinking what if i lose my programming or whatever.

anyway if anyone has done this and has stuff they wish they had included or regret putting in there id love to hear it. been a tech for about 8 months, just got my general last month so still figuring all this out

the printed frequency list thing is not low tech, its actually one of the smarter things you can do. i've seen guys show up to an activation with a freshly reset radio and just stand there. keep your local repeater list, simplex calling freqs, and if you're doing any ARES or RACES stuff the nets you'd be assigned to. laminate it if you can, mine has survived some serious weather at this point.

for the battery question, rough rule of thumb i use is figure out your radio's draw on receive (usually around 1-2A for something like the 817) and transmit (can be 3-4A on low power, more if you crank it), then think about your duty cycle. like if youre monitoring a net and only transmitting maybe 20% of the time, you can stretch that 20ah pretty far. probably 8-10 hours of comfortable operation if you're not running the amp or anything. winlink should be fine on battery, the transmit bursts are short.

one thing i'd add to your kit that people always forget: a way to actually charge the battery in the field. small solar panel is worth having even if its just a 20 or 30 watt panel. doesnt need to keep up with your draw, just slows down the drain. also a dc power strip or pigtails so you're not fighting to power everything from one cable.

congrats on the general, that opens up a lot more options for emergency work. one thing i'd throw out there is dont overlook the non-radio stuff in the kit. like yeah the radio is the point but when i was doing hurricane support a few years back the things i was most glad i had were a headlamp (with extra batteries, obviously), some kind of rain cover for the whole setup, and snacks that dont melt or go bad. sounds dumb but you might be sitting at a shelter or an EOC for 12 hours and the vending machine is always empty.

also think about how you're gonna power accessories. if you ever do winlink youll want a laptop or at least a tablet and that needs power too. i started keeping a small usb power bank just for the non-radio electronics so it doesn't fight with the radio battery.