I think the whole prepper/survivalist thing goes a little far. Yes, there are very slim possibilities of some of their scenarios occuring, but to spend 10's of 100's of thousands of dollars "prepping" with years of food stores, etc... I think is a little over the top. I just don't see it where families will be killing eachother to get at someone eles's food stores, etc. I do think, though, it is important to be prepared with some food/water stores, and other needs to keep you going for at least a good couple of weeks, and supplies in case you have to relocate and leave the home with a planned place to go (even it its just a relative/friends/hotel) We've seen examples such as Hurricane Katrina where a localized area was wiped out.

1) In some ways Heathshkit had the same marketing knack in the 60's and 70's as Volkswagen. They saw good sales figures working a niche market for the better part of two decades. Which means there is a buttload of old Heathshkit gear still circulating through the swaps waiting for the next generation of Hams eager to relive the alleged glory of owning a Benton Harbor green station.........

2) Unfortunately, that glory is more imagined than real as vintage Heathshkit gear now pushing 50 years old suffers from two areas of disappointment:
    a) It wasn't that good to begin with, and by modern standards you can do better for the same or less money.
    b) Most of it wasn't built to last and hasn't improved with age. So it ends up being turned at a future swap. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The attraction of Heathshkit was in the sales premise of owning quality gear on the cheap. Back in the days of point-to-point chassis wiring there was validity in the cost of labor as a significant part of the total, but unfortunately Heathshkit went beyond that level of cost-cutting by using some seriously cheap parts. You see it today in the phenolic rotary switches and tube sockets that are such a joy to replace. The avid kit builder wanted to believe then, as they do today, a first-time builder could do well enough to build a really cool radio while they were learning how to solder. Heathshkit did all they could to keep the design as cheap and simple as possible. You're thinking super-duper world class signal grabber, Heath is thinking idiot-proof econo box that works well enough to sell.

To use a car analogy, when you strip something down to the nitty gritty you get a Volkswagen Beetle. Not a Mercedes SLS...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/var/ezflow_site/storage_RT_NEW/storage/images/future-cars/sports-cars-of-the-future-2012-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-roadster/1779551-1-eng-US/sports-cars-of-the-future-2012-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-roadster.jpg

But, as an advertising copy writer would be quick to point out, the Beetle can do everything the red item from Stuttgart can do but at a fraction of the cost. Therefore they are comparable, perhaps almost identical. Anyone believe that? Anyone want to buy a bridge in New York?

So... What's my point? Heathshkit gear has been a cult item for better than 20 years. It's rare to see more than a day or two go by without a new thread started here by someone struggling to fix the rig they bought a year or more ago that has never and may never work as expected, but they still want to believe that someday it will happen. And if they can't fix it, maybe the next owner will and that's why I say there are two primary reasons you'll see Heathshkit gear at almost every swapmeet:

* There was plenty of it sold back in the day and much of it is still around because.............
* The true believers are loathe to throw it out or admit that maybe the Benton Harbor reputation isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Another of my hobbies is woodworking... I get tired of carrying my 3 HTs around loose in my toolkit, so I have plans to use my woodworking skills to design and build a nice little hardwood attache case to fit all 3 plus their manuals and a few adapters. Would enough hams want these kinds of customade hardwood carrying cases to make it economical for me to sell them on the side? I've already built a small carrying case for Ed Lemus, KE6VRK, for the detachable control head of his mobile, and he loves it...

Lots of options...

I have a similar rig that I use for kicking around.

1st  power: make sure you have enough battery to keep running and not run out of gas or battery. Running a 100w radio is like leaving your headlights on. Also, if you're going to leave the engine running, have the exhaust system checked out. An old van could have a leaky pipe or two.

2nd antenna: lots more options. At the low-end of the spectrum you could mount a 3/8" mag mount to the roof (as long as you ground it) and put up a vertical. My van works as a decent ground plane down to about 40m.

After that, you could mount a 3/8" antenna mount to the roof as a permanent mount. On an old van like that, drilling a hole in the roof is not a problem.

If you want to put up towers, you can get up to 20 or 30' with a trailer-hitch mount. Higher if you want to guy it (depending, of course, on the antenna and prevailing winds) . 2 10-foot steel conduit pipes can go together and go up in  10-20 minutes. Most of the time is spent futzing around with the antenna at the top.

If the van comes with (or you add) some sort of roof rack, you can go crazy with that.

My only concern with my old, high-mileage van is I'm afraid that as soon as I put a bunch of stuff on it, something expensive (like the transmission) will go out and it won't be worth the trouble to fix. So, I'd have to rip all the Ham Radio stuff out. (Of course, I've been using that excuse for the past 7 years. )

Have fun with it!