so ive been a ham for about three years now and just got involved with my local ARES group and they keep talking about go-kits and being ready to deploy and honestly i feel a little behind because everyone else seems to have these really elaborate setups and i just have my HT and a mag mount on my car

i started looking online and theres so much stuff out there, pelican cases and battery systems and all kinds of antennas and i dont really know what the baseline expectation is. like is there a standard for what you're supposed to have or is it just whatever works for your situation

my main question is basically what do you actually NEED versus what is nice to have. i dont want to spend a ton of money on gear that just sits in a box but i also dont want to show up to an activation and be the guy with no power backup or whatever. any advice from people who have actually deployed would be really helpful

honestly the best advice i ever got was start simple and build from there. when i first joined our ARES group i overthought it completely and almost bought a $400 pelican case setup before ever even going to a drill.

what you actually need for most deployments is pretty basic — a radio that can do at least VHF/UHF, some way to power it that isnt just a wall outlet, a decent antenna that isnt a rubber duck, and a way to log contacts. thats kind of the floor. everything else is gravy depending on what your EC wants you to be able to do.

for power i started with a small sealed lead acid battery from a UPS, ran it with an anderson powerpole setup, and that got me through plenty of exercises. later i moved to a lithium iron phosphate battery and yeah its better but it wasnt necessary at first. the biggest thing is just showing up and being reliable, nobody cares if your case isnt a pelican as long as you can operate when the time comes

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been meaning to ask our EC the same question. i did put together a basic kit last fall after a bad storm came through and knocked out power for two days in our neighborhood and i realized my HT was the only radio i had that worked and the battery was half dead lol

what i ended up doing was just getting a small rolling bag, threw in my IC-7300 power cable, a 20ah lifepo4 battery, a efhw antenna with some paracord to hang it, and a notebook. nothing fancy but it fits in my trunk and i can actually get on HF if i need to. probably not what an ARES deployment needs but its better than nothing for personal preparedness