so we have a countywide ARES exercise coming up in about 5 weeks and im trying to nail down the power setup before then. last year we ran a honda eu2200i and it was fine but we had it maybe 40 feet from the operating position which honestly was a pain for cable runs and a couple guys complained about the noise bleeding into audio. wasnt terrible but noticeable.

this year im thinking about going hybrid — start with a 100ah lifepo4 battery for the first few hours and then run the generator to top it off as needed rather than running it continuously. we're planning to run two IC-7300s, a dstar node, and some packet stuff so the load is real, not just one HT. figured the inverter run time on the battery alone probably wont cut it for a 12 hour exercise but maybe if the generator cycles on for an hour or two here and there it works out okay.

also doing a portable dipole situation on a 31 foot jackite pole and maybe a second antenna on a different mast for VHF/UHF work. the question is whether that pole is gonna hold up to anything more than about 10-15 mph wind gusts without guying it. anyone actually done this for extended ops? ive seen people skip the guy wires and just hope for the best and ive seen others rig up a full three point guy system even for short poles like that.

any thoughts appreciated, especially if youve done similar load setups in the field

the hybrid approach makes a lot of sense honestly. i run something similar for public service events, couple of 100ah battleborn cells and a small honda, and cycling the genny is way better than running it continuous — quieter, less fuel, and the RF noise situation is way better when its off. just make sure your charge controller or DC-DC charger can handle the load while also powering the radios at the same time, ive seen guys trip up on that where the battery ends up not actually getting charged because the radios are pulling too much through the same circuit.

on the jackite pole — yeah guy it. 31 feet is not a lot but once you put a dipole on it with any kind of center insulator weight and some coax hanging off it, a 15 mph gust with any turbulence will walk it right over. i use three lightweight dyneema lines and cheap tent stakes and it takes maybe 8 minutes to rig properly. not worth skipping it for a 12 hour exercise.

two 7300s and a dstar node plus packet is a pretty serious draw. have you actually load tested that 100ah pack to see what your real runtime looks like? on paper it sounds fine but if the 7300s are both hitting even 50 watts intermittently and the node is doing its thing you might be surprised how fast you're pulling it down, especially if the battery isnt at 100% when you start. id run a bench test at home before the exercise just to sanity check the numbers.

also depending on what dipole feedpoint hardware your using that coax weight hanging off a jackite can be gnarly in wind. ive had the pole actually bow pretty significantly with RG-8X running down from the top. something to think about with the guying setup, angle your guys out far enough that it actually provides support and not just catches a fall after its already leaning.