so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and honestly been putting off doing this properly for way too long. we had a pretty bad storm roll through last month and the power was out for almost 4 days and I realized my 'emergency setup' was basically just hoping my HT had a charge on it. not great.

anyway I picked up a used FT-857D a while back and thats going to be the centerpiece of the kit. got a pelican case that barely fits everything if I pack it just right. right now I have the radio, a 20ah lifepo4 battery with a cheap PWM solar charge controller, some coax, an end fed half wave antenna, and a handful of adapters. threw in a notepad and some pens too because apparently I still write things down like its 1987.

what am I forgetting though? I feel like every time I think I have it figured out I read someone elses list and realize I missed something obvious. my main use case would probably be served or ares type activations, maybe some backup comms for our local repeater group if the infrastructure goes down. not trying to do HF DX from a backpack or anything crazy, just solid reliable local and regional coverage.

also not sure whether to bother with a separate 2m/70cm mobile or just use the 857 for everything. opinions?

the thing that catches most people off guard is documentation. like you probably have the radio manual somewhere but do you have a laminated card with your local repeater freqs, the ARES net schedules, your own callsign and contact info, and whatever ICS forms your served agency uses? sounds dumb but when things are actually hectic you dont want to be scrolling through your phone trying to remember what PL tone the county EOC repeater uses, especially if your phone is dead too.

also I'd think hard about a dedicated VHF/UHF radio separate from the 857. not because the 857 is bad on 2m, it absolutely isnt, but if youre doing logistics on the local repeater for 6 hours straight you dont want to tie up your HF capability. a used IC-2300H or even a decent dual band mobile is like $80-100 and gives you flexibility. I run an FTM-400 alongside my HF rig and its been worth it every single time ive been deployed.

one more thing and then ill shut up -- get a Anderson Powerpole distribution block and standardize everything to powerpoles if you havent already. borrowing gear from another operator or the club kit is way less painful when everything just plugs in.

im kind of in the same boat as you, just started thinking about this seriously after my county had a big flooding situation and they were asking for ham volunteers and I realized I wasnt really ready to just show up and be useful. one thing I kept seeing mentioned in the ARRL emcomm stuff was having some kind of written log of what equipment is in your kit and serial numbers, mostly for insurance reasons I guess but also just so you can do a quick check before a deployment to make sure nothings grown legs and walked off. probably overkill for most people but seemed smart.

also does your battery setup have a way to monitor voltage without pulling out a multimeter? I got a little inline watt meter thing off amazon for like 12 bucks and its been really handy for knowing where my battery is at a glance.