so ive been putting together a go-kit style setup for the county ARES group and we're doing a full drill this weekend where we actually have to run everything off our own power, no grid hookup. been running a little Honda eu2200i for the radio stuff and its been fine for HF but now they want me to also run a linked repeater node and a laptop for winlink and suddenly im not sure if im cutting it close on wattage.

the HF rig is an IC-7300 which i know pulls around 20-22 amps at full output on TX but i dont usually run it at 100w in the field, more like 50-60. the repeater node is a baofeng-based thing someone cobbled together, not sure what it draws but probably not much. laptop is maybe 45w. the eu2200i is rated 1800w continuous so on paper i should be fine but ive heard people say those inverter generators get unhappy when you're running close to the limit for extended periods.

also the antenna situation is a whole other thing. were setting up in a pretty open field, have a 40m OCF dipole and a 6m mast. thinking about using the mast for the dipole with the center up and the legs sloping down but i dont know if thats going to kill my radiation angle too much. the repeater node is just going to use a mag mount on a vehicle so thats easy. anybody done something similar and have thoughts on either the power side or the antenna setup

the eu2200i should handle that load no problem honestly. i ran mine with a 7300 plus a raspberry pi gateway and a 12v battery charger ticking away and never had a hiccup. the thing to watch is your duty cycle on the HF side - digital modes like winlink will run that finals harder than voice would and the generator doesnt care what mode youre in, it just sees the current draw. if youre doing any kind of extended packet or vara sessions just keep an eye on the rig temp and maybe dont push it past 50w and you'll be fine.

on the antenna - sloping dipole from a 6m mast is totally workable for 40m. youre not going to get a great elevation angle for DX but for regional emcomm work which is probably what you need anyway, the NVIS characteristics are actually decent especially if the legs are at a pretty shallow angle. i wouldnt overthink it. get it up, get a baseline SWR, adjust if you have to. the 7300's tuner will handle a lot of weirdness anyway.

yeah what he said about the generator is right, 1800w continuous gives you way more headroom than it sounds like. the surge capacity on those hondas is like 2200w so even if everything keys up at once youre probably okay. only time i ever tripped mine was running a big linear which you obviously arent doing.

one thing i'll throw out - if you havent already, get a small battery buffer in there. like a 20-30ah LiFePO4 between the generator and your radio gear. smooths out any weirdness and if you need to kill the genny for a few minutes for refueling or whatever you dont lose the whole station. been doing that for years now and it just makes field ops way less stressful. the node will stay up, laptop stays up, you just swap fuel and start it back up. seems like overkill until the one time its not.