so anyway i think i finally landed on a setup that actually works for me for field comms and wanted to share and get some opinions because im sure people here have done this way longer than me

been running a KX3 for a while now and i keep flip flopping on antennas. tried the end fed half wave with a 9:1 unun and it works okay but i always feel like im leaving signal on the table especially on 40 when the band is crowded. lately ive been messing with a linked dipole cut for 40/20/17 and honestly for portable stuff it seems way more predictable, easier to match, and the feedpoint on that thing stays happy even when i dont have a perfect inverted V setup going

the power situation has been bugging me more though. i was using a 20ah lifepo4 pack and it was fine for a few hours of casual operating but if youre talking actual field comms where youre maybe running nets for 4-5 hours with some traffic, you start watching that percentage drop and get nervous. thinking about adding a small honda eu2200 for longer activations but man those things are heavy and i already have a lot of kit to haul

curious what other people do for sustained field ops, not like a SOTA one-shot deal but like multi hour comms duty where you actually need to keep stuff running reliably. do people just bring multiple batteries? run a generator? i dunno, feels like theres no perfect answer here

the linked dipole thing is real, i switched from EFHW to a trapped dipole a couple years back for exactly that reason. the EFHW sounds great on paper and everyone online loves them but in practice getting a good match in a random field with trees that are never the right height is a pain. my linked dipole just works and i can tune it with the ATU barely working

on the power question, i run two 18ah battleborn packs and that gets me through a full ARES exercise no problem, were talking like 6 hours with moderate tx duty cycle on 100w. key thing is keeping your duty cycle honest, if youre doing voice net control you can spend a lot of time just listening which barely draws anything. the generator route is fine if you have vehicle support but yeah for foot portable its not really an option unless somone else is carrying stuff

one thing that helped me was adding a small 50w folding solar panel. not enough to run the radio directly but it keeps the battery topped off if you have any daylight. in summer that makes a real difference over a long day

eu2200 isnt that bad weight wise compared to older generators but i get what you mean, once you add the fuel can it adds up fast. we use them for SET exercises when we have a command post vehicle but for anything where your hiking in forget it

honestly for the multi hour thing i just bring a second battery. boring answer but its reliable and theres no moving parts to break at the worst moment