So I've been a ham for about 3 years now and I keep saying I'm gonna put together a proper go-kit and never actually do it. Well after the ice storm last month knocked out power for 4 days around here I figured I really need to stop procrastinating on this. We had a couple nets running on the local repeater for welfare traffic and I felt kind of embarrassed honestly that my whole setup was just my HT with a half dead battery and no way to charge anything.

So I started pulling stuff together and I've got a Yaesu FT-891 I was thinking of using as the main radio since I already own it and it does HF and I can throw a wire antenna pretty quick. Got a 20ah LiFePO4 battery I picked up a while back. Thinking a small folding solar panel too. I've got a decent RigExpert for digital modes if needed. Packed it all in a Pelican knockoff case from Amazon.

My question is what are the things people always forget until they actually need them? I feel like I have the big obvious stuff but I know there's gonna be something dumb I overlooked. Cables? Adapters? I put in some coax but not sure how much spare. Also what do you guys do for logging when you dont have a laptop running? Just paper?

The thing that gets people every single time is the little stuff — SO-239 to BNC adapters, a handful of alligator clips, some Anderson Powerpole connectors in a little ziplock. Sounds dumb but when you need them at 2am you will be very glad they're in there. Also throw in a basic multimeter, nothing fancy, just something to check voltage when you're scratching your head wondering why the radio won't key up.

For logging I actually keep a few of those Rite in the Rain notebooks in my kit. Waterproof, you can write on them in the rain or with wet hands, and they hold up way better than regular paper if things get rough. A couple mechanical pencils too, pens can get weird in cold weather.

One more thing — document your own kit. I know that sounds silly but write down what frequencies your local ARES group uses, who the EC is, the NTS net schedule for your section, all of that. In a real emergency your brain goes sideways and having a little laminated card with the important stuff right there in the lid of the case is worth more than you'd think. I learned that one the hard way during a deployment a few years back when I blanked on the simplex calling frequency we were supposed to use and had to ask someone embarrassingly basic questions on the air.

honestly the solar panel is great but make sure you actually test the whole charging chain before you need it, like plug everything together on a sunny afternoon and watch it actually put current into the battery. i had a panel and a charge controller that i assumed worked together and the first time i really needed them the controller was set wrong and it wasn't doing anything useful

also spare fuses. so many spare fuses. and a headlamp with extra batteries because you will be doing stuff at night or in a dark shelter and your hands need to be free