so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and honestly kind of embarrassed that i dont have a proper go-kit put together yet. every time there's a weather event or something i scramble around grabbing stuff and it's just a mess. finally decided to actually do this right.

right now i have a Yaesu FT-817 that i was thinking of making the centerpiece of it since its already pretty portable. got a decent 40Ah LiFePO4 battery and a little 30w solar panel. been thinking about antennas and thats where im kind of lost — do i just throw in an EFHW and call it good or do i need more options than that? i do mostly HF but obviously for local stuff id want VHF/UHF capability too so maybe i need a second radio.

also curious what people actually put in the non-radio stuff. like logbooks, coax, adapters, headphones, i assume all that. but is there a list somewhere of the stuff you dont think about until you actually need it and then its not there. the random small stuff is what gets me every time.

the thing that always bites people is power cables and connectors. you think you have everything and then you're trying to run something off a battery and the anderson powerpole you need is back home in a drawer. i keep a small ziplock just full of various adapters and a couple short jumper cables. also a decent multimeter, non-negotiable for troubleshooting in the field.

for antennas, an EFHW is totally fine as a primary but i'd throw in a simple roll of wire and some insulators so you can improvise if conditions or terrain dont cooperate. the FT-817 is a solid choice, ive seen those things run for days on a LiFePO4 that size if you're not transmitting constantly. one thing people skip — bring a copy of your license and a notepad even if you're logging digitally. paper doesnt need batteries.

the VHF/UHF question really depends on what your local ARES or RACES group uses. worth checking before you buy a second radio because a lot of groups have specific stuff they run during activations and you want to be compatible.

im in a similar boat, just got my general last year and started thinking about this after we had some bad storms this spring and our county EOC was apparently a mess because nobody could get their equipment working properly lol. anyway what helped me was just packing everything i thought i needed, then doing a practice run in the backyard and timing how long it took to get on the air. you find out real quick whats missing or what doesnt actually work the way you thought it did.

also headlamp. seriously. i forgot mine the first time i did this and it was dumb.