so we've got a countywide simulated emergency exercise coming up next saturday and im trying to nail down my portable setup before then. ive done these before but this time they want us to be fully self-sufficient for 12 hours minimum, no shore power, no nothing. my normal go-kit is built around an IC-7300 and i usually just run it off a 100ah lifepo4 battery which honestly lasts me all day for normal HF work but they're saying we might need to run digipeater duties on top of voice and i'm not sure the battery alone is gonna cut it.

so i picked up a small honda EU2200i a while back for camping and i'm thinking about using that to keep the battery topped off rather than running the radio directly off it — just feels cleaner to me and avoids any noise issues. has anyone run a setup like that in the field, like generator charges battery and radio runs off battery the whole time? or am i overcomplicating this.

also the antenna situation — the site we're assigned to is basically a flat gravel parking lot next to a community center, no trees, nothing to tie off to. i have a 31ft fiberglass pushup mast and was thinking end-fed halfwave for 40m since thats the primary net frequency. any thoughts on counterpoise or ground radials in that situation, gravel isnt exactly ideal for a ground mounted vertical.

the generator to battery to radio approach is exactly what i do and it works great. the EU2200i is super clean power anyway but yeah running through the battery acts as a buffer and your radio never sees any fluctuation. just make sure your charger can handle the charge rate — if you're pulling say 20-25w on transmit and running a laptop and maybe a TNC you want to be putting back in at least what you're taking out or you'll slowly drain down over 12 hours. a 20-30 amp DC charger running off the honda should be more than enough, thing will barely be breaking a sweat.

for the EFHW on a pushup mast in a parking lot, you'll want at least one counterpoise wire. i usually run about 17 feet of wire along the ground, doesn't have to be buried or anything, just laying on the gravel is fine. some guys stake it out in like a star pattern if they have room. the EFHW with a 49:1 unun really doesnt care that much about ground but a single counterpoise cleans up the feedpoint impedance a bit and keeps RF off your coax braid. sounds like a solid plan honestly.

yeah what he said about the buffer setup, thats pretty standard for serious field ops. one thing i'd add — watch the honda's runtime at that load. the EU2200i at like quarter load is gonna sip fuel but if you're also running a charger pushing 20+ amps into a partially depleted battery it'll be working harder than you think for the first couple hours. bring more gas than you think you need, always.

the pushup mast in a gravel lot situation, ive been there. get yourself some sandbags or water jugs for the base, wind comes up and a 31 footer with wire attached becomes a problem real fast. learned that one the hard way at a SET a few years back, mast went over and took out someones coffee setup. no one was hurt but it was embarassing lol