so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and every time there's a storm or something comes up locally I realize I am completely unprepared compared to some of the other guys in my club. last month during the ice storm my shack power went out and I basically had nothing ready to go. I have a Yaesu FT-891 that I love but it just sits on my desk and I've never really thought seriously about making it portable for emergency stuff.

I started throwing things in a pelican case last weekend and now I'm second guessing everything. I have the radio, a power pole distribution block, about 40 feet of coax, my programming cable, and a little notebook with frequencies written down. I feel like I'm forgetting obvious stuff that everyone else already knows about. my wife keeps asking me why I need another box of cables and honestly I cant even fully explain the go-kit concept to her in a way that makes sense.

what do I actually need in there that I'm probably overlooking? especially for local emcomm kind of stuff, not like ARES deployment across the country or anything. just want to be useful if something happens in my county.

your list is actually a pretty solid starting point honestly, most people forget way more basic stuff. the thing that gets overlooked constantly is power -- like you need to think about how long you can actually run that 891 and off what. do you have a battery sorted out? a good sealed AGM or lifepo4 with enough amp hours to run a few hours at moderate power makes a huge difference. and a way to charge it in the field, even a small solar panel strapped to the outside of the case.

other stuff i'd throw in: SWR meter or at least an antenna analyzer if you have one, because you might end up using a random antenna someone else threw up and you want to know what you're dealing with. extra fuses, always extra fuses. a headlamp cause you will end up operating in the dark at some point. hand sanitizer and snacks sounds dumb but when you're deployed for 6 hours at a shelter you'll be glad you have them. oh and make sure those written frequencies include your local ARES/RACES nets plus some backup simplex channels because repeaters go down when you need them most.

honestly the best thing you can do is just deploy it once in your backyard or something and see what you wish you had brought.

dont overlook documentation. i know that sounds boring but having a laminated sheet with your call sign, your grid square, common local freqs, and even just basic ICS radio log format saved me so much fumbling around at an actual activation. also a physical copy of your ARES registration or whatever your served agency needs from you ID wise.

also maybe a dumb thing to mention but -- spare mic. i blew a connector on mine at the worst possible time during a flood response a few years back and had to borrow somebody else's radio for like two hours while i sorted it out. just having a cheap backup hand mic bungeed in there would have fixed that whole situation.