so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and keep telling myself ill get a proper go-kit together and then never do it. last month we had a pretty bad storm come through and our local ARES group got activated and i showed up with basically... my HT and a half dead battery pack. embarrassing honestly.

so im actually doing it this time. i picked up an old Pelican-style case at a surplus store and have a Yaesu FT-891 i was thinking of using as the main rig since its pretty compact and does HF plus i already own it. my question is more about the power side of things — do most people go with a dedicated LiFePO4 battery or just a big AGM? i was looking at a 20ah LiFePO4 from Bioenno but the price kinda hurts. also do you guys keep your go-kit fully assembled and ready to go or do you break it down between activations? i feel like if its broken down i'll never actually grab it in time

any advice from people who actually use theirs in the field appreciated, not just theoretical setups

the bioenno batteries are worth every penny in my opinion, ive had mine for going on 4 years and it still holds a great charge. the weight savings over AGM is real when youre hauling stuff around and LiFePO4 handles partial state of charge way better which matters if youre not always topping it off between uses.

as for keeping it assembled — yes absolutely keep it ready. i learned that the hard way during a flood activation a couple years back, spent like 20 minutes just finding cables and i was supposed to be on site in 30. now my kit lives in the case wired up and i just do a quick power-on check every month or so and top off the battery. the FT-891 is a solid choice too, i used one for about a year in my kit before upgrading, very capable radio for the size. only thing id add is make sure you have multiple antenna options in there, a small vertical and a roll of wire for an NVIS setup if you need it. you never know what the situation is gonna call for

honestly i went the cheap route first with a 35ah AGM and regretted it immediately lol. thing weighs a ton and i threw my back out carrying it plus my radio case up two flights of stairs at a served agency drill. switched to a 30ah LiFePO4 and never looked back. yes its expensive upfront but your back will thank you

one thing nobody told me when i was building mine — get a good Anderson Powerpole distribution block in there from the start, not an afterthought. trying to retrofit that stuff later when everything is already zip tied down is a nightmare. also label every single cable because six months from now you will not remember what goes where, trust me