so we've got a county ARES drill coming up in about three weeks and i'm trying to figure out the best way to power everything without just dragging a giant generator out there. last time we did this we had a honda eu2200i running the whole show and it was fine but honestly kind of overkill for what we were doing and the fuel logistics got annoying fast.

the setup is basically an IC-7300 for HF, a couple of VX-6Rs for local stuff, and we're trying to run a laptop for winlink the whole time. probably 8-10 hours of operation. i've been looking at lifepo4 options, specifically the jackery 1000 plus or just building something with battleborn cells, but i dont know if thats enough capacity or if the runtime math actually works out that way in practice. the 7300 on transmit is like 23 amps at 100w so that adds up.

antenna side we're probably going with a chameleon emcomm III for HF since its fast to deploy and honestly performs well enough for what we need, and a jpole for the 2m stuff up on a painter's pole. nothing fancy. just want it to actually work when we need it.

anyone run similar setups off battery only for a full day? wondering if i need to just accept the generator or if theres a realistic battery path here

yeah the math on the 7300 can scare you but in practice you're not keying up anywhere near 100% of the time during an actual drill. i've done similar ops with a 100ah lifepo4 and the 7300 running at like 50-60w and made it through 8 hours no problem, had plenty left over. the laptop is actually what surprised me, mine pulls about 4-5 amps through the inverter which adds up more than i expected.

if you go the battleborn route, two of their 100ah batteries in parallel gives you a solid buffer and they handle partial discharge way better than agm. honestly though for a single drill the jackery might be the easier path just because its self contained and you dont have to wire anything up in the field. less stuff to troubleshoot when youre already dealing with antenna issues and trying to get nets checked in on time.

one thing i'd add - whatever you run, bring a small folding solar panel even if you think you wont need it. had a drill go long on us once and being able to trickle in some charge in the afternoon bought us enough to not have to break down early.

the chameleon emcomm III is a solid choice for that kind of deployment, we've used it a bunch and its pretty forgiving to tune up even in weird field conditions. one thing though - if you're near any structures or doing urban stuff the feedline routing matters a lot more than people think with those endfed types. just worth checking.

on the power question im probably not much help because we just kept using the generator after getting burned on battery capacity once. maybe not the answer you want lol