so we have a county-level ARES exercise coming up in about 6 weeks and im trying to figure out the best way to power everything without just dragging a big Honda gen set out there the whole time. last exercise we ran a 2000w inverter gen and it worked fine but it was loud and we burned through more fuel than i expected just running an IC-7300 and a laptop and some accessories. felt like overkill honestly.

thinking about going with a pair of 100ah lithium batteries this time, maybe with a 200w solar panel if the site has decent sun exposure. the venue is kind of a fairgrounds so there should be open sky. main concern is if we end up running higher power for any extended periods - like if we actually have to do some real traffic handling and need the 100w output for a while - whether the batteries hold up through a 10-12 hour operating period without needing to recharge mid-day.

also on the antenna side we're probably doing a fan dipole for HF, center fed, up maybe 25-30 feet on a fiberglass mast. anyone done similar setups and have opinions on whether its worth lugging out a tuner or just cut the elements to be resonant on the main nets we use (mostly 40m and 80m for this area).

any input appreciated, been doing this long enough that i know everyone has opinions on this stuff lol

the battery math should work out fine if youre not running 100w continuously the whole time. realistically for traffic handling youre probably averaging maybe 20-30% duty cycle on transmit, so your actual current draw averaged out is way less than the 20+ amps at full output. two 100ah lithium packs gives you a solid buffer especially if the solar is actually producing during the day. i ran a single 120ah lifepo4 through a full 8 hour SET last fall with an IC-705 and some 2m/70cm gear and barely put a dent in it, granted thats lower power but still.

on the tuner question - honestly just cut the dipole legs for 40m resonance and use a tuner for 80m, the mismatch on 80 from a 40m dipole isnt terrible and a decent autotuner handles it no problem. or go fan dipole with separate legs for each band and skip the tuner entirely, thats what we do for most of our go-kits now. less to fiddle with under stress.

yeah what he said about duty cycle is right. people always assume worst case and overspec everything. that said i wouldnt completely ditch having a small generator available as backup, even if you dont plan to run it. murphy's law and all that - clouds roll in, someone leaves a radio keyed longer than they should, whatever. a little eu2200 or similar tucked in the truck doesnt hurt anything and you dont have to use it.

fiberglass mast at 25-30 feet should be totally fine for a fan dipole, just make sure your guys are comfortable setting it up under pressure because that stuff always takes longer in the field than it does in the backyard. we had an exercise a couple years ago where it took almost 45 minutes to get the antenna sorted because nobody had practiced the actual deployment. the radio gear was perfect and we were still late checking in to the net lol.