so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and i keep telling myself im going to put together a real go-kit and then never actually do it. last week there was a pretty bad storm in our area and the local ARES group got activated and i just kind of sat there feeling useless because my setup is basically just my shack radio and a power strip. not exactly portable.

anyway i finally ordered a Pelican 1510 case and i've got an IC-7300 at home but obviously thats not going in the kit, so i picked up a used FT-857D which i think makes sense since it does HF/VHF/UHF all in one. also grabbed a 20ah LiFePO4 battery from bioenno. so the radio and power situation i think is okay but im not really sure what else needs to go in there. i know i need an antenna situation sorted out obviously but thats where i start to get fuzzy. do i do a linked dipole, a vertical, one of those end-fed things? and then beyond antennas what else do people actually find themselves reaching for during an actual deployment. not just stuff that sounds good on paper but stuff you actually used.

also should i be thinking about a separate VHF/UHF HT in there or does the 857 cover that well enough on its own

the 857 will cover VHF/UHF fine for most stuff but honestly i still throw an HT in my kit anyway. mainly because if the main radio goes down for whatever reason you still have comms, and also an HT is just way easier to hand to somebody else if you need help. i use a cheap Baofeng for that role and i dont feel bad if it gets dropped or rained on.

for antennas my go-to is a linked dipole on a fiberglass mast, takes me maybe 10 minutes to get up and works really well on 40 and 20 which is usually what i need for regional stuff. i also keep a mag mount dual band antenna for the VHF side of things. one thing a lot of people forget is coax — have more than you think you need and make sure your connectors are solid because loose PL-259 at 2am during an activation is not fun.

other stuff that sounds boring but really matters: a notebook and pens (multiple pens, they always disappear), headlamp with extra batteries, a printed copy of local repeater info and any nets you might need to check into, and some kind of waterproofing for the whole kit. i used to skip that stuff and then got caught in the rain at a public service event and learned my lesson pretty fast.

dont overlook power cables and having the right adapters. sounds obvious but i showed up to my first activation with my radio and battery and realized i had the wrong connector and spent like 20 minutes digging around in my car. now i keep a little ziplock bag with anderson powerpole adapters and a couple of fused leads in different configurations. also a multimeter fits in any kit and has saved me more than once trying to figure out why something wasnt working.

the FT-857 is a solid choice btw, had mine for years and its been everywhere with me. only thing i'll say is the menus are kinda deep so make sure you really know the radio before you need it in a hurry because fumbling through menus under stress is rough.