so I've been meaning to do this for like two years and after the storm last month kind of lit a fire under me. we lost power for almost 4 days and even though I have my HF rig and a handheld I realized pretty quick that I wasnt actually as ready as I thought I was.

right now im building out a proper go-kit in one of those Apache cases from harbor freight. got my Yaesu FT-891 in there, a 40ah lifepo4 battery, some coax, and a few other odds and ends. planning to use a Wolf River Coils silver bullet antenna for portable HF since I can set it up pretty fast.

what I'm realizing is there's like a hundred little things I keep thinking of and then forgetting. like I remembered to pack a cheap multimeter but totally forgot extra fuses until my buddy mentioned it. and I have no idea how long my battery will actually last under real operating conditions, I keep meaning to do a proper test but haven't gotten around to it.

anyone else been through this process? what were the things that bit you in the butt that you didn't think about? also curious if anyone has a good way to track power draw without spending a ton of money on a fancy watt meter

oh man the fuses thing is so real. I also forgot to pack a spare mic clip and my mic kept falling off the desk at the most annoying times during a drill. little stuff like that.

for power monitoring honestly the bayite or drok inline DC meters on amazon are like 12-15 bucks and work surprisingly well. not super precise but good enough to watch your voltage and see what you're pulling. I zip tied one to the outside of my case so I can glance at it without opening anything up.

one thing I would really suggest is doing a full overnight test before you actually need it. set your rig to whatever power level you'd realistically use, key up periodically like you would in an actual deployment, and just see how long it goes. I was shocked how much difference it made running 50w vs 100w over several hours. also write down your results and tape them inside the lid of the case, future you will thank you.

other stuff I had to learn the hard way: headlamp and extra batteries (obvious but I forgot), a notepad and multiple pens because pens always disappear, and some kind of rain cover or plastic bags for your coax connections if you're going to be outside. oh and a printed copy of local repeater freqs because your phone might be dead.

just got my technician a few months ago and been lurking this forum trying to learn about this stuff so I hope its ok to jump in. im in the middle of building my first kit too and its kind of overwhelming honestly. I dont even have an HF radio yet so mine is pretty basic, just my BF-F8HP and a nagoya antenna and I got a small 12v battery from a UPS I had sitting around.

one thing someone told me at my local club meeting was to actually practice using everything in the kit, not just assume you know how because you set it up at home. apparently a lot of people pack stuff they've never actually operated under pressure and then fumble around during an actual event. makes sense when you think about it