so ive been putting together a go-kit style setup for emcomm stuff and also just general portable ops and i keep going back and forth on the power situation. right now i have a 100ah lifepo4 that i built up last year and its been great for day trips but we're talking about a potential 3-4 day activation where we'd be running a couple HF stations plus maybe a 2m/70cm setup for local coordination and i just don't know if i want to haul a generator or commit to solar + battery bank

the site we'd be at has decent sun exposure but its late october so we're not talking peak solar hours obviously. the genny option is a honda eu2200i which i can borrow, it's quiet enough that it wont drive everyone crazy, but then you've got fuel logistics and the noise is still there even if its reduced

on the antenna side i'm leaning toward an EFHW for 40/20 with a 9:1 unun, throw it up in an inverted L configuration if there's a tree nearby. maybe a hamstick on a mag mount for the truck if we need to move around. anyone done extended field deployments like this and found a setup that didnt cause headaches? specifically the power stuff, the antenna part i feel pretty ok about

three to four days with multiple stations running is gonna eat through that 100ah faster than you think, especially if you're doing any voice operation or running an amp even a small one. i did a 72 hour ARES exercise last spring and we had two 100ah batteries plus a 200w solar panel and we were still a little nervous by day two because we had a cloudy stretch. ended up being fine but it was close.

if you can swing both — like bring the honda as backup but run solar primary — thats probably the sweet spot. the eu2200i is genuinely quiet enough that you can run it a few hours in the evening to top everything off and nobody loses their mind. fuel logistics arent that bad if someone just designates a jerry can situation and keeps track. honestly the genny gives you a safety net that lets you not stress about clouds or a station that ends up drawing more than expected.

on the EFHW, yeah that'll work fine, just make sure your feedline situation is sorted before you get there. nothing worse than realizing you need a different length coax at the site. i'd bring a little extra RG8X just in case.

late october solar is rough depending where you are geographically. i tried to run solar-only on a field day type thing in early november once and it was kind of a disaster, like 4 hours of usable light and the panels were at like 60% because of the angle. ended up just running the car alternator more than i wanted to which isnt great long term.

my vote is just bring the generator and dont overthink it. the eu2200i is solid and for 3-4 days of serious comms work youre not gonna regret having reliable power. lifepo4 stays as your buffer and overnight supply, genny handles the heavy daytime load or recharging. thats kind of the standard setup for anything serious i've seen at regional emcomm exercises anyway