so we have a county-level ARES exercise coming up in about 3 weeks and im trying to figure out the best way to power everything without just dragging a big honkin generator to the site. the EC wants us to be able to run HF and VHF simultaneously, which means the IC-7300 plus a 2m mobile rig and probably a laptop for winlink. rough estimate puts me at maybe 30-35 amps peak if i'm actually transmitting on HF at 100w while the laptop and the other radio are doing their thing.

ive been going back and forth between just using my honda eu2200i with a good filter for RFI and calling it a day, or trying to build out a LiFePO4 battery bank big enough to last a full 8 hour deployment without recharging. the math on the battery side gets pretty ugly when you account for the HF duty cycle — like if we're running any digital modes the avg current draw isnt as spiky but it just keeps going.

for the antenna side i'm leaning toward the Chameleon MPAS Lite as a vertical since we might not have good tree support at this particular site. last exercise we were basically in a gravel parking lot next to a community center and radial situation was a nightmare. has anyone run that antenna on 40m for any kind of actual traffic work and gotten decent results, not just a signal report from 200 miles away?

anyway curious what other folks are running for portable power on longer deployments. not trying to start a generator debate just want to hear what actually works in the field.

the generator vs battery thing really comes down to how much you want to haul and whether the site has noise issues. i ran a eu2000i for years and yeah the RFI is manageable with a good line filter but you still get some hash on 40m if conditions are marginal. switched to a 100ah lithium setup with a 200w solar panel on a fold-out stand and honestly for most single-day exercises it works fine unless were doing a lot of transmitting back to back.

on the antenna question — ive used the MPAS Lite a bunch and 40m is totally workable but you really need to lay out at least 4 or 5 radials even if theyre short, like 16 feet each. in a gravel lot i just tape them down with whatever i have. without radials the feedpoint impedance goes weird and the tuner in the 7300 can usually find a match but efficiency tanks. for traffic nets where youre not trying to work dx its usually fine though, especially if the other end has a decent antenna.

whats your expected comms distance for the exercise? if its mostly intra-county stuff you might be fine on 2m simplex or a local repeater and not even need HF pushing hard, which changes the power equation a lot.

honestly for 8 hours i'd just run the generator and stop overthinking it. yes there's some RFI but a common mode choke at the feedpoint handles most of it and a laptop doesn't care about generator noise at all. the battery math you're doing is right and a bank big enough to run 35A for 8 hours even at 50% duty cycle is gonna weigh more than the eu2200i anyway, and cost way more up front.

the one thing i will say is dont skimp on the extension cord situation — ran into a guy at a field day type event who was getting all kinds of weird voltage drop issues because he had like 50 feet of 16 gauge going from the genny to his station. use at least 12 gauge if you're going any distance, or just park the generator close and deal with the exhaust fumes.