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 pulling stuff together. right now i have my FT-891 and a little 40ah lifepo4 battery, a cheap solar panel, and my antenna stuff (mostly a end-fed halfwave i can throw up pretty quick). threw it all in a pelican knockoff case from amazon.

the thing is im not really sure what else should be in there. like obviously the radio basics are covered but what about the non-radio stuff? i keep seeing people mention logbooks and frequency reference cards and stuff like that. and what do you do about power for your laptop if you need to run winlink or whatever. feels like every time i think im done i realize i missed something obvious

also do most people keep their go-kit 100% ready to grab at all times or do you kind of assemble it when you need it? mine is sort of half and half right now which defeats the purpose i guess

the "always ready" thing is something a lot of people struggle with honestly. i went through like three versions of my kit before i stopped second guessing it. what helped me was just deciding it was done and leaving it alone except for a quarterly check where i top off the battery and make sure nothing walked off.

for the non-radio stuff — printed frequency lists are huge, especially your local ARES/RACES nets and any served agency freqs you might need. a waterproof notepad is better than a regular logbook if you're outside in crappy weather. headlamp, a few granola bars, basic first aid stuff. sounds like boy scout nonsense but you'll want it at hour 6 of a deployment.

for the laptop power question, a lot of guys run a small 12v to usb-c converter off the same battery. works fine for a chromebook or older thinkpad. some people add a second smaller battery just for the laptop so you're not draining your radio battery. depends how long you expect to be out. my kit has been through two actual deployments and one was almost 18 hours so the power planning really matters more than people think when they're first setting up

dont forget coax adapters and a few extra pl-259s or whatever connectors your antenna uses. i showed up to help after the flooding a couple years back and my coax end got damaged and i spent like 45 minutes trying to borrow stuff from other operators. embarrassing. now i keep a small ziplock with spare connectors, a barrel adapter, and a short patch cable in the kit no matter what.

oh and copies of your license obviously, and any ARES/CERT credentials you have. some sites wont let you in without them