so we have a county-level exercise coming up in about 5 weeks and im trying to nail down the power situation before we get there. last time we did one of these i showed up with a 100ah AGM and it was fine for a few hours but we were running an IC-7300 plus a laptop and a small fan and by hour six the battery was pretty cooked. not dead but i didnt want to push it further.

this time we're talking about a longer operational period, maybe 12-14 hours, possibly overnight if they extend the scenario. the EC wants us to demonstrate sustained HF capability on 40 and 80 meters, voice and digital. so im weighing whether to drag out a generator versus just stacking batteries or doing a solar hybrid thing.

the site is a county park, semi-open field, they're allowing generators but have to be 50 feet from the operating position which is actually kind of annoying with extension cords. anyone run a similar setup and have opinions on the honda eu2200 vs the yamaha ef2000is for this kind of use? or is there a better way to do this without going full generator. antenna-wise im probably going with my buddipole or maybe just an end fed halfwave on a fiberglass mast, havent decided yet.

the 50 foot cord run is actually not that bad if you use a proper 12 gauge extension, you'll drop maybe a volt or two which doesnt really matter for a battery charger or a switching supply. i've done similar exercises and honestly the honda eu2200 is just hard to argue with. quiet, fuel efficient, and the inverter output is clean enough that my signalink doesnt throw a fit on digital modes. the yamaha is also good but parts and support in my area lean toward honda so thats kind of a tiebreaker for me personally.

that said if youre doing a hybrid approach — run the genny a few hours to top off batteries and then go battery-only during quiet periods — you can stretch fuel a long way. i usually bring two 100ah lithiums and a 30amp charger, kick the genny on for maybe 90 minutes every four or five hours and that keeps everything happy without burning through gas all night. the noise reduction alone is worth it during overnight ops when you're trying to keep a low profile in a park.

end fed halfwave on a mast will serve you a lot better than the buddipole for 40/80 in my experience, especially if youre trying to cover regional nets. buddipole is great for travel but its a compromise and you'll feel it on 80. if you have room to run a wire out, even a sloper off a 31 foot mast gets you way more signal. just my two cents on the antenna side of things.

on the power i cant really compare those two generators directly but i do know the eu2200 has a parallel kit if you ever need more capacity down the road, might be a factor depending on where your group wants to take things.