so ive been putting together a go-kit for some local emcomm stuff and also just for fun portable ops and im running into the classic generator vs battery debate again. my current thinking is a 2200w inverter generator for anything longer than a few hours and then a 100ah lifepo4 for shorter activations or when i need to stay quiet. the problem is the generator i borrowed last time was noisy as hell on 40m, like S7-S8 noise floor, made ssb basically useless. i was running a linked dipole at about 30 feet and the feedline was maybe 15 feet from the genny.

is that just a grounding issue or is it the generator itself being garbage? i didnt have any ferrites on the feedline or the power leads. also wondering what people are actually running for antennas in the field when they need to be up fast. i like the linked dipole but putting it up solo is kind of annoying when youre also trying to manage everything else. been eyeing one of those 9:1 unun end fed setups but i know those are kind of a mixed bag depending on who you talk to.

anyone running a dedicated field power setup thats actually worked well for them across multiple bands? im not opposed to spending money but i also dont want to overthink this before the weekend

the RFI from generators is almost always a combination of things — the generator itself radiating, the power leads acting as an antenna, and if the genny isnt properly bonded to your station ground it gets way worse. i put a bunch of mix 31 clamp-on ferrites on both the AC power cord going into my inverter and on the feedline near the radio end and it dropped my noise floor by like 3-4 S units with a cheap chinese generator. still not perfect but workable. also try to get the generator as far away as the extension cord will allow, like 50-60 feet if you can, and run the cord away from the antenna direction.

for field antennas, ive been using a 49:1 end fed for a couple years now and i wont go back to a dipole for portable stuff honestly. yeah they have tradeoffs but being able to throw one end up a tree and have something resonant-ish on 40 through 10 in like 10 minutes is hard to argue with when youre doing it solo. you might need to mess with the length to get it where you want it and an antenna analyzer helps a lot. the linked dipole is technically cleaner but its just more work to deploy.

yeah generator RFI is a real pain. what brand was it? some of the harbor freight predator units are surprisingly quiet electrically, others are terrible, same with some of the hondas depending on the model and age. the inverter type generators are generally better than conventional but even then you need to be carefull about grounding. i ground my genny frame to a short stake and then bond that to my station ground and it made a noticeable difference.

honestly though for anything under like 6-8 hours i just run off battery now. 100ah lifepo4 and a 30 amp dc-dc charger from the car if i need to top it off. way less hassle than messing with fuel and oil and the noise thing. only break out the generator for multi-day stuff or if im running higher power and need to sustain it.