so we've got a fairly big activation coming up, county-wide exercise where we're supposed to demonstrate actual sustained operations for like 6-8 hours without any grid power. ive done plenty of SOTA and POTA stuff so portable ops isn't new to me but this is different because we need to run digital modes the whole time and keep a logging laptop going, not just throw up a dipole and work some SSB contacts.

the antenna side i think i have covered - planning to run an end-fed halfwave with a 9:1 unun up about 30 feet in an inverted-L configuration off a fiberglass mast, maybe a second station with a buddipole on a tripod for VHF. that part im pretty comfortable with.

where i'm getting lost is the power side. we have access to a small Honda EU2200i which should be more than enough wattage on paper but ive heard these inverter gennys can sometimes be weird with radio gear if you're not careful about grounding. also trying to figure out if we should be running the radios off the generator directly or charge a battery bank and run off that with the genny just topping it off. running a IC-7300 for HF and a couple of VX-6Rs for local comms.

anyone done something similar and have a opnion on how to set that up? specifically worried about RF getting into the audio chain on the 7300 when the genny is running nearby.

yeah the EU2200i is pretty clean but youre right to think about grounding. what we do for exercises is run the genny output through a good surge strip that has a real ground lug, then bond that ground to the station ground rod if we have one or at minimum the coax shield braid. the floating neutral on those hondas can cause all kinds of weird noise if you dont tie it down.

on the battery vs direct question - personally i always prefer running off a deep cycle AGM or LiFePO4 with the genny acting as a charger. cleaner power, you can shut the genny down for breaks without losing ops tempo, and if something goes wrong with the generator mid-exercise you dont just fall off the air instantly. we usually run a 100ah LiFePO4 with a decent DC-DC charger pulling from the genny and that keeps a 100w HF station going pretty comfortably. the 7300 pulls around 20-21A at full talk power so the math works out fine with that size battery as a buffer.

RF into the audio chain is usually a feedline routing issue more than a power thing in my experience. keep the coax away from the generator and power cables as much as you can, and if you're still getting noise try a clip-on ferrite on the mic cable right at the radio.

the inverted-L on a fiberglass mast is solid, done that setup a bunch of times and it works great. one thing id mention though - if youre in a parking lot or someplace without good ground, the EFHW with the 9:1 can get a little unpredictable on some bands. might be worth bringing a few radials just in case you start seeing weird SWR on 40 or 80. even just 4 or 5 of them laid on the ground helps a lot.

cant really add much on the generator side that the other guy didnt cover but i will say from a logistics standpoint dont forget to account for fuel. 6-8 hours on an EU2200i under moderate load... you're probably looking at burning through a gallon and a half to two gallons depending on how hard its working. bring more than you think you need. we showed up to an ARRL simulated emergency test one year with what we thought was plenty and ended up scrounging fuel from a county vehicle at hour five which was embarasing to say the least.