So ive been a ham for about three years now and I keep telling myself I'm going to put together a real go-kit for emergencies and I just... never do it. Always something else going on. But after the storms we had last month knocked out power for almost four days I figured okay this is the kick in the pants I needed.

Right now my idea of emergency preparedness is basically grabbing my HT and hoping for the best which I know is not great. I want to put together something I can actually grab and go in like 10-15 minutes if things get bad. I've seen some really elaborate setups people post online with pelican cases and all these custom panels and honestly it looks cool but also kind of overwhelming when you're starting from scratch.

I guess my main questions are like, what radio do you actually use for go-kit stuff, do you go HF capable or is VHF/UHF enough depending on what you're doing, and how do you handle power? I've been looking at lifepo4 batteries but prices are all over the place. Also does anyone actually use their go-kit for ARES activations or is it mostly just sitting in the garage looking pretty.

Good on you for finally taking the plunge. Honestly the best go-kit is the one you actually build and use, not the perfect one you keep planning. I spent way too long trying to figure out the ideal setup before I realized I should just start with what I had and improve from there.

For power the lifepo4 route is solid and I'd say worth the price difference over regular lead acid especially for something you want to grab and go -- weight matters a lot when you're hauling stuff in an emergency. I've been running a 20ah battery from a pretty middle of the road brand for a couple years now and it's been fine. Pair it with a decent solar panel and you're covered for most scenarios where grid power is out for a while.

On the radio question it really depends on what your local ARES group is actually doing. Ours operates almost exclusively on VHF/UHF repeaters for local emcomm stuff so a good dual band mobile like an IC-2300 or a Yaesu FTM series in a portable setup covers most activations. But if you want to reach outside the area when repeaters are down or overwhelmed then having HF capability is a different conversation. A lot of guys in our group have separate kits for different scenarios which sounds like overkill but makes sense once you've been on a few activations where plans changed on the fly.

Start simple. Seriously. Get a radio, a battery, a charger, some coax and a simple antenna you can set up fast, and a bag that fits it all. Write down what's in it. Practice actually setting it up. That will teach you more about what you actually need than any forum post will.

yeah same boat here honestly, I put together my kit after talking to the EC at a local club meeting and he said something that stuck with me -- he said most amateurs who show up to an activation are unprepared to operate for more than about 2 hours without needing something from their car or house. food, water, extra batteries, phone charger, whatever. so now I think about my go-kit less like a radio kit and more like a full deployment kit that happens to include a radio if that makes sense.

I use a Yaesu FT-891 for HF in mine because our region is big enough that simplex VHF doesnt cut it across the whole county but your mileage may vary. the battery situation is the thing I wish I had figured out sooner, I went through two different setups before settling on a 30ah lifepo4 with an anderson powerpole distribution block and now connecting stuff is actually easy instead of a mess of random cables.