so ive been putting together a go-kit for the county ARES group and we have a drill this weekend and im trying to figure out the power situation once and for all. right now i have a 100ah lifepo4 and a honda eu2200i but hauling both seems like overkill for a 6-8 hour activation especially if were not running anything high power.

the antenna side is sorted i think - got a buddipole and a 40m EFHW on a 31ft jackite pole depending on what band conditions are doing. the EFHW has been way more reliable for me honestly, the buddipole is fussier than i expected especially trying to get it resonant quick during an exercise when everyones watching you fumble with it.

but back to power - if im running an IC-7300 mostly on 20-30w for voice and some JS8call, is the 100ah battery enough for the day without the genny? i dont want to show up and have the TO mark me down for a dead radio at hour 5. also curious what other people are running for field comms setups in general, always looking to see what works for real not just what looks good on paper

100ah lifepo4 should be more than fine for that load honestly. at 20-30w out on an IC-7300 youre probably pulling maybe 5-6A on transmit and maybe 1.5-2A on receive, and in a typical voice net youre not keying up constantly so your average draw is way lower than the peak. rough math puts you well under 40ah for 8 hours of realistic use, so youve got plenty of headroom even if conditions are bad and you end up transmitting more.

bring the honda anyway though and just leave it in the truck. if something goes sideways - radio acting up, someone else needs power, whatever - youll be glad its there. the weight argument kinda goes away once its in the vehicle and not on your back. worst case it sits there all day and you drive home with a full tank.

yeah the buddipole thing is real, i went through the same thing. ended up just leaving mine at home for anything time-sensitive and running a linked dipole cut for 40 and 20 instead. takes like 3 minutes to throw up if you know the drill and zero tuning fussiness. the buddipole is cool for experimenting but during an actual exercise when youre supposed to be demonstrating capability it just becomes a stress thing

on the generator vs battery - what everyone else said. also worth checking if your 7300 firmware is current, there was a period where mine was pulling weirdly high standby current and i couldnt figure out why the battery was draining faster than expected. probably not your issue but worth knowing