Michael Wu

so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and keep telling myself ill get a proper go-kit together and just never do it. after watching some weather roll through last month and losing power for about 18 hours i figured okay this is the wake up call i needed. right now i have an FT-857D that im planning to use as the main rig, a 40ah LiFePO4 battery i picked up last year, and a SignaLink for digital modes. i built a little pelican-style case for most of it but im still figuring out the antenna situation. was thinking a end fed halfwave for HF and maybe just a mag mount for 2m/70cm but im not sure if thats good enough for actual emergency use or if i should do something more robust. the thing i keep second guessing is the power side -- like do i need a way to recharge the battery in the field or is 40ah enough to get through most scenarios? i have a small solar panel but havent really integrated it into the kit yet. also logging, do people still do paper logs for go-kit stuff or does everyone use a laptop? feels like a laptop is just one more thing to power and protect. anyway im not asking anyone to build this for me just curious what experienced folks wish they had thought of when they first put theirs together

ok so i just got my technician license about two months ago and ive been making contacts on 2m and some HF (got my general a few weeks after tech) and now im realizing theres like three different ways to confirm contacts and i genuinely dont understand which one matters or if i need all of them so from what i can tell LoTW is run by the ARRL and its the official one for awards like DXCC, eQSL is a separate thing that some people use, and then theres actual physical cards which i kind of love the idea of but seems expensive to send internationally. is there like a hierarchy here or do people just pick one and stick with it also do i need to upload every single contact or just the ones i care about confirming? my logging software is log4om and i see options for all three but havent set any of them up yet. kind of overwhelmed honestly

i had almost the exact same problem on my tacoma. ended up being that the lip mount wasnt making good electrical contact with the roof edge, there was a thin coat of paint plus some factory sealer in there. took a piece of sandpaper and scraped down to bare metal where the mount contacts the roof and night and day difference. kinda annoying to do but it fixed it.