so ive been putting together a go-kit type setup for our ARES group and i keep going back and forth on the power side of things. right now i've got a 100ah lithium running a 857D and it works fine for a few hours but if we're talking a 24+ hour activation that battery just isn't gonna cut it on its own, especially if other people are pulling from the same source for laptops and whatnot.

been looking at the honda eu2200i vs a predator 2000 from harbor freight. i know the honda has a better rep but the price difference is pretty significant and honestly for ARES work we're not running anything that sensitive are we. the RFI from cheaper inverter gennys has been a concern someone brought up at a meeting but i've never actually tested it myself. has anyone run a predator or similar next to an HF setup and noticed noise issues or is that kind of overblown

also the antenna situation — im currently using a buddipole which i actually like for VHF/UHF stuff but for HF it's kind of a pain to tune and i feel like i spend more time messing with it than actually operating. thinking about just bringing an EFHW with a 9:1 unun and throwing it up in whatever tree or structure is around. is that a reasonable approach for field work or am i giving up too much compared to a resonant antenna

the predator RFI thing is real but manageable in my experience. ran one at a county EOC exercise last fall and yeah there was some hash on 40m when the generator was close, maybe 30 feet away. moved it upwind to about 60 feet and used a decent ferrite choke on the power line coming in and it dropped way down, mostly usable. wouldnt say its a non-issue but its not a dealbreaker either if youre willing to do a little management. the honda is quieter in both senses of the word but if budget matters it matters.

on the EFHW — honestly that's what a lot of people end up at for field work and there's a reason for it. quick to deploy, reasonably efficient if you're using a decent transformer, and you can get it high enough in most locations to work well. the buddipole is great kit but you're right that tuning eats time. only thing i'd say is bring a decent length of coax so you can get some separation between the feedpoint and your operating position, and make sure your counterpoise situation is handled or you'll have RF everywhere.

100ah lithium should honestly last longer than a few hours with an 857 unless you're running it wide open on transmit constantly, whats your typical duty cycle looking like? if you're doing a lot of net check-ins and monitoring it should stretch pretty far. that said yeah for 24hr you want charging capability regardless.

i just use a 30 amp shore power style setup with a good charger and run off grid solar when i can but generators make more sense for a lot of activations especially in wooded areas or bad weather. cant really comment on the predator specifically but ive heard mixed things. one guy in our section had one and said he returned it after one field day because of the noise but another dude uses one all the time with no complaints so who knows, setup probably matters a lot