so i've been meaning to do this for like two years and after the storm we had last month that knocked out power for three days i finally got serious about it. i pulled out my old pelican case and started throwing stuff in but i feel like im definitely forgetting something obvious.

what i have so far: my FT-857D, a coax jumper, my j-pole antenna rolled up in a bag, spare fuses, a notebook and pens, a copy of the local repeater frequencies. i picked up one of those 40ah lifepo4 batteries last fall so thats in there too with the anderson powerpole cables. i think i have a charger situation figured out but honestly not totally sure how long that battery will last running the radio at 100w vs like 25w, haven't actually done the math yet.

what do i always see people forget? i feel like there's some dumb thing i'm going to leave out and not realize it until i actually need to use this thing in a real situation

headphones. seriously everybody forgets headphones. when youre operating in a noisy environment like a shelter or an EOC with a bunch of people talking around you the speaker on the radio is basically useless, you'll miss half of what comes through. i learned that the hard way during a flood activation a few years back, borrowed a pair from another op and felt like an idiot for not having my own.

also maybe a laminated card with your ICS forms or at least a quick reference for ICS-213, depends on what kind of ARES or CERT involvement you have. and snacks. people laugh but when you're sitting a 6 hour shift at a served agency and nobody thought about food it's not funny anymore. your kit sounds pretty solid though, the lifepo4 was a smart call. rough rule of thumb, at 25w on a typical operating cycle you're probably looking at 8-10 hours easy out of a 40ah pack, more if youre doing a lot of receive time.

dont forget a way to actually charge that battery if you end up somewhere for more than a day or two. small solar panel is worth having even if its just a 50 watter, or at least know what your options are ahead of time. also spare microphone if you have one kicking around, those connectors on the 857 are not exactly bulletproof in my experience