so ive been meaning to do this for like two years now and after the storms we had last month I finally got serious about it. got a Yaesu FT-857D that im planning to use as the main rig, a 40ah lifepo4 battery from bioenno, and I grabbed one of those harbor freight pelican-style cases (not a real pelican but its fine for now). threw in some coax, a few PL-259s, electrical tape, the usual junk.

my question is whats the stuff people always forget until they actually need it. like I have the radio stuff mostly sorted I think but what about the non-radio stuff. I was at a ARES net meeting a while back and someone mentioned keeping a copy of your license and some frequencies written down on paper in case your phone dies, which I thought was obvious but honestly I hadnt done it. so now im wondering what else am I not thinking of. anyone been through a real deployment or even just a drill where something was missing that you wish youd had

the paper copy thing is huge and yeah everyone thinks they'll remember til they dont. a few things off the top of my head from doing a couple actual deployments with our local ARES group -- first thing, a small notepad and like three pens. sounds dumb but you will need to write things down and pens go missing constantly, always have backup pens. second thing people forget is a headlamp. not a flashlight, a headlamp, because you need both hands free.

also and this is the big one for me -- a power strip or at least a 12v to AC inverter if you're gonna need to charge anything or run a laptop. I spent three hours at a shelter with my hands tied because I had one outlet and three things that needed power. also some velcro straps for cable management because setting up in a hurry makes a mess and you'll thank yourself later. oh and snacks. actual food. nobody thinks about this and then you're at a repeater site at 2am running on nothing.

honestly the thing that surprised me when I did my first ARES drill was how much time I spent just waiting and how little I spent actually operating. so I started keeping a small notebook with all my local frequencies, the county ARES plan stuff, ICS forms -- like the actual paper versions because sometimes the EOC doesnt have great wifi or any wifi. ICS 213 especially, get familiar with it if you havent.

your radio kit sounds solid btw, the 857 is a good choice for portable. one thing id think about is antenna options -- do you have something that doesnt need a lot of space to set up? a vertical you can run on a tripod or even a roll-up jpole for vhf is handy when you cant put up a dipole. also spare fuses for the radio and battery leads. burned through my main fuse once and didnt have a spare and felt like a complete idiot standing there with a working radio that wouldnt turn on