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brsmith77 5 points ago +5 / -0

Serious question: What would you recommend for generating 5kw in a moving vehicle?

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Averon 4 points ago +4 / -0

A car battery with 300 cranking amps could provide 3600 watts. So 2 car batteries should do it, maybe not continuously for a long time though and you'd probably need pretty beefy cables if you have them in parallel.

Whether you want them in series or parallel would depend on what you're diving with it. If it needs to be converted 120/240v ac you'd have to go through an inverter so in that case series would be better. If that's the case I'd suggest 4 car batteries in series so you have 48v and require substantially less bulky cables. There are inverters used for solar setups you can find online that should be able to handle it.

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brsmith77 3 points ago +3 / -0

Interesting. Thanks.

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mintyfresh 2 points ago +2 / -0

Additional alternators would be better. The keydown contest CB afficionados often use multiple (sometimes locomotive) alternators on a big SUV/pickup motor to get 10 kw+ of RF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daKDu6FT2Xs

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Averon 1 point ago +1 / -0

I hadn't thought of additional alternators. I had been researching solar recently so that's the perspective I was looking at it from. So I guess if there is enough room under the hood, alternators would be a good option, if not, extra batteries and an inverter.

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mintyfresh 1 point ago +1 / -0

You'd still need inverters, if the RF gear doesn't operate directly on the alternator output voltage.