so we've got a countywide exercise coming up and I've been tasked with setting up a portable station at one of the EOC alternate sites, basically a community center parking lot with no shore power available. been doing this a few years now but this one is a bit more involved than usual because we need to sustain ops for roughly 8 hours and potentially run two rigs simultaneously.

my current thinking is to bring the Honda EU2200i and just run everything off that, but a few guys in the club are pushing hard for the LiFePO4 battery route and solar top-off. my concern with the battery-only approach is that it's gonna be late October, we're in the midwest, sun angle is gonna be terrible and if it's overcast we're basically just draining the pack with no meaningful replenishment. the generator feels more reliable for a known duration exercise but then you've got the noise, the fuel, exhaust placement headaches, all that.

on the antenna side I'm planning the Buddipole on the 20/40 switchable config plus maybe a linked dipole for the HF work, and we've got a couple VHF/UHF verticals for local net traffic. mast is the Jackite 31 footer which has been solid. anyone done something similar and have thoughts on the power side especially? the dual-rig simultaneous thing is what's making me second guess the battery approach.

ran almost exactly this setup at a simulated emergency test two summers ago, two rigs going, IC-7300 on HF and a separate dedicated VHF station for served agency traffic. we did the battery route with a 100ah lifepo4 and a 200w panel and honestly on a good sun day it was fine but the second it got cloudy we were watching the state of charge drop way faster than expected. the HF rig alone at moderate power is one thing but when both stations are transmitting with any regularity you're pulling a lot more than most people plan for.

for 8 hours of genuine dual-rig ops I'd just take the honda. yes its annoying and you gotta think about where the exhaust is going and keep it away from the operating position, but you know what you're getting. you can always supplement with a battery for the VHF side and keep the generator feeding the HF station and battery charger, best of both worlds kinda. the eu2200i is quiet enough that it doesn't cause problems at most sites ive worked.

buddipole on 40 meters, just make sure your counterpoise situation is sorted out before you get there because that thing can be finicky when you're rushed setting up and people are waiting on you. learned that the hard way at a public service event, took way longer than it should have to get a decent SWR on 40.

on the generator question I dont have strong opinions but one thing worth considering is whether your exercise evaluators are going to ding you for fossil fuel dependency. some ARES groups have been moving toward renewable/battery-only as a resilience standard. might be worth asking before the exercise what the eval criteria look like.