so we've got a county-wide exercise coming up and i'm trying to figure out the best way to power the station without just running a genset the whole time. last exercise we had a honda eu2200i running basically nonstop for like 6 hours and yeah it worked fine but the noise was annoying, the fuel logistics were kind of a pain, and i kept worrying about CO near the tent. just not ideal.

this time i'm thinking about going with a lifepo4 battery setup, probably two 100ah batteries wired in parallel, running the ic-7300 and a small laptop. rough math puts me at maybe 20-25ah per hour under normal ops, so that should get me through the exercise without needing a recharge. but we also have a go-kit HF station with a higher duty cycle for digital modes and that's where i'm not sure the math holds up.

for the antenna side i'm planning to bring the end-fed halfwave again, it's just so easy to set up, throw a line over a tree, done. but i've been thinking about whether a linked dipole would actually serve us better if we need to work multiple bands without fiddling with the tuner constantly. anyone done field comms with a linked dipole and found it worth the extra setup time?

also debating whether to bring the generator anyway just as backup. probably smart but adds to the load-out significantly. curious what others are running for exercises like this.

the lifepo4 math sounds about right but i'd bump up your estimate a little if you're doing any significant digital. js8call or winlink with a 100w radio on FT8 duty cycle can easily pull 15-18 amps just from the radio alone when transmitting. two 100ah packs should still cover you but dont cut it too close — you really want to avoid pulling these below 20% if you can help it, especially in cold weather.

we ditched the generator entirely at our last exercise and ran a 200ah lifepo4 with a small 100w solar panel as a trickle source since it was a clear day. worked great, totally silent, and the net control guy actually commented on how clean the audio was compared to previous years when everyone had generators running nearby. think there was some RFI from the old genset honestly.

on the antenna — i've used both. the EFHW is hard to beat for speed but if you know you're going to be jumping between 40 and 80 for real traffic handling, the linked dipole is worth the extra 10 minutes. tuner on an EFHW on bands it wasn't cut for can be kinda iffy depending on your feedline situation.

yeah bring the generator as backup, you'll thank yourself. i've been burned twice thinking batteries would last and then something comes up — extra operators, someone decides to run a second radio, whatever. the eu2200i is pretty quiet as generators go and if you site it downwind and run a proper exhaust extension it's manageable. the CO thing is real though, get a detector if you haven't already, we keep one in the go kit now.

the linked dipole vs EFHW debate is kind of a religious war lol. i use an EFHW with a decent tuner and it works fine across 40/20/15/10 but i've seen setups where the tuner just fights you all day. depends a lot on your counterpoise situation in the field. one thing i'll say is the EFHW is way faster when you're doing rapid setup drills and every minute counts in an actual activation.