so we've got a county-wide ARES exercise coming up and i've been tasked with setting up a portable communications node at the EOC backup site which is basically a parking lot behind the old fairgrounds. No shore power available, they're still arguing about whether the county will bring a generator or if we have to provide our own, classic.

my current plan is to run an IC-7300 off a 100ah lifepo4 battery with a 30a anderson powerpole setup, and throw up either a buddipole or my end-fed halfwave with a 9:1 unun depending on what bands we actually need to work. HF for any interop stuff, and i've got a 2m/70cm vertical for local simplex. the EFHW is probably easier to get in the air quick with just a painter's pole and some paracord.

my concern is runtime. if im running digital modes, maybe js8call or winlink, the draw is a lot more manageable than voice but i still want to have margin. anyone run a setup like this for 8-10 hours and have a sense of how far a 100ah lifepo4 actually gets you in practice? and if we do end up needing a generator, what are you all using for field exercises — something like a honda eu2200i or are people going with something cheaper? i dont want to spend $1100 on a honda if a champion or westinghouse does the job for emcomm purposes

the 100ah lifepo4 should be fine honestly, especially on digital. i ran a similar setup at a simulated emergency test last spring, IC-705 instead of the 7300 so bit different draw, but i had a 50ah battery and was doing winlink and js8call for about 6 hours before i even thought about recharging. the 7300 pulls more on transmit obviously, maybe 20-22 amps at 100w, but if you're running 50w which is usually plenty for js8 it's a lot more reasonable. in receive you're looking at maybe 2-3 amps. rough math puts you well over 8 hours at moderate duty cycle so you should be in good shape without a genny at all depending on how often you're actually keying up.

as for the generator question — i get the sticker shock on the honda but those eu2200i units are genuinely a different class of machine for this stuff. the inverter output is clean enough that i run it direct to my radio without a UPS in between, and the noise level matters a lot when you're trying to copy weak signals in a field environment. i tried a cheaper inverter genny once and the RF hash was a real problem, had to move it way further away and run a long extension. that said i've heard some guys have good luck with the westinghouse igen2500 so it might be worth looking at that one specifically if budget is an issue.

yeah what he said about the honda noise thing is real, i learned that one the hard way. also for the antenna — the EFHW on a painter's pole is what i'd do too, way faster than messing with the buddipole in a parking lot situation where you might not have great options for element positioning. just make sure your counterpoise situation is sorted because in a paved lot with no ground to speak of the feed point behavior can get a little weird especially on 40m. i usually clip a 17ft wire to the shield side and just let it lay on the pavement, not ideal but it works.

one thing worth thinking about is bringing a small solar panel even if you have battery capacity. like a 100w panel can at least trickle in enough to offset some of the draw during the day and it gives you a psychological buffer if the exercise runs long. i use a renogy 100w suitcase panel with a victron mppt and it folds up pretty small.