I'm putting together a portable field comms kit centered around a 20Ah LiFePO4 battery and need some antenna recommendations. Setup will be man-portable for EmComm deployments, so weight and deployment speed are priorities.

Currently considering end-fed half wave vs OCF dipole options. Primary bands will be 20/40/80m with occasional 17m work.

What have you found works best for quick deployment scenarios where you need to be QRT in under 30 minutes? Interested in both wire antennas and any compact vertical solutions you've had success with.

For rapid deployment, I swear by the 49:1 end-fed setup. 130 feet of wire gets you 80-10m coverage, and with a good counterpoise it tunes well on most bands.

Takes me 15 minutes solo to get it up 25 feet on a telescoping mast. Your 20Ah should easily handle a full day at 100W.

Have you looked at the Alpha Delta DX-CC? It's an OCF that works great on 80/40/20/10 without a tuner. A bit heavier than wire but the time savings during setup make it worth it for EmComm work.

Consider the Chameleon CHA P-Loop 2.0 for portable vertical. Only 6 feet tall when deployed, handles 20W beautifully, and the tuning is fast. I've used mine with similar battery setups for POTA activations.

Weight penalty is worth it when space is really tight.