so ive been meaning to do this for like two years and after the storms we had last month i finally got off my butt and started building a proper go-kit. right now ive got my ft-857d, a 40ah lifepo4 battery, a cheap anderson powerpole distribution block, and im planning to throw in a dual band handheld as backup. also grabbed one of those little solar panels, 100w panel from renogy, figured it cant hurt.

what im not sure about is the antenna situation. im thinking a linked dipole for hf and maybe a roll of coax but honestly i dont know if thats overkill or if i should just go with a vertical. the kit is supposed to fit in a single pelican case so space is an issue. and i keep seeing people talk about logging gear and i havent even thought about paper logs vs tablet yet.

anyone been through this process and have a sense of what i wish id packed or what turned out to be useless? im in the midwest so flooding and tornado response is the likely scenario not like wildfire or anything.

the antenna question is a real one and honestly depends on what nets you expect to work. for midwest storm/flood response you're probably looking at mostly 40m for regional stuff and maybe 2m/70cm for local coordination, so a linked dipole sounds reasonable but kind of a pain to deploy fast when things are chaotic. i ended up going with a homebrew NVIS antenna, just a wire dipole cut for 40m and kept low to the ground, because it covers the region really well without needing a big mast situation.

one thing i totally overlooked when i built mine was documentation. like i had all this gear and no written record of frequencies, net schedules, ctcss tones for local repeaters, ICS form templates, nothing. now i keep a laminated quick-reference sheet in the lid of the case. sounds dumb but when its 2am and youre setting up in a parking lot you will thank yourself. also extra fuses. i cannot stress that enough, i blew one at exactly the wrong moment during a drill and felt like an idiot.

yeah i went through the same thing last year. my go kit ended up being way heavier than i wanted lol. one thing though — dont sleep on a simple headlamp and maybe a small usb hub or charging brick for your phone. its not glamorous but when you're deployed and your phone dies and thats your connection to whoever's running the EOC it matters. also if you're on ics stuff at all, having a few printed ICS-213 forms already in the case is something people forget about until they need one.