so i've been putting together a go-kit situation for the past few months and honestly the power side of things is where i keep second guessing myself. right now i have a bioenno 30ah lifepo4 that i pair with a 100w panel when the sun cooperates but i keep running into the same problem where i'm burning through it faster than expected, especially if i'm running the ic-7300 at anywhere near full power for extended periods.

the antenna situation is a bit of a mess too. i've been using a homebrew EFHW with a 49:1 unun and it tunes up fine on 40 and 20 but i've never been totally confident the feedpoint impedance is actually where it needs to be, like i wonder sometimes if im just masking a mismatch with the atu and wasting power. thinking about picking up a chameleon or something similar but those prices are hard to swallow when you know you can build something for $30 in parts.

anyway the generator question is the real one i wanted to ask about. for longer activations or emcomm type stuff where i might need to run for 12+ hours, whats the minimum size generator you'd consider practical? i've been looking at the eu2200i because its quiet enough to not be a nightmare but i keep wondering if theres a better option in that range. dont want to lug around more than i have to.

the eu2200i is pretty hard to beat for that use case honestly. i ran one for three days straight during a ARES deployment a couple years back, fed it a gallon of gas every 8 hours or so at the loads we were pulling and it never complained. noise level is genuinely acceptable, especially if you can put some distance between it and your operating position. only thing i'd say is make sure you have a decent line filter between the genny and your radio gear, the eu series is pretty clean but ive picked up some hash on certain bands without one.

on the EFHW thing, if your swr is sitting reasonable and the radio isnt getting warm around the finals i wouldnt lose sleep over it. the commercial ones like chameleon do have better build quality but the electrical performance isnt magically better than a well-made homebrew. probably spend that money on more battery capacity instead.

what power level are you typically running at during those longer sessions? because i went through the same spiral worrying about my battery setup and then realized i had the 7300 set to 100w out of habit when honestly 50w was doing the same job 90% of the time and my runtime basically doubled. not the most exciting fix but worth checking before you throw money at more iron.

also the eu2200i is fine but if weight is a real concern the predator 2000 is like 10 lbs lighter and cheaper. its louder but not hideously so. depends on your situation i guess.