My radio equipment consisted of a Yaesu FT817 transceiver, an Z817 antenna tuner for matching my vertical ground plane antenna to the transceiver, three solar panels with 15 watts peak power and 10 AA NiMH batteries. The antenna system I used was a simple antenna rod about 5 meters long aimed at the 20m short wave amateur radio band.
The antenna rod was set up to point vertically into the sky with a small wire fixed to the top of the rod. On the ground, four wires each with an approximate length of 5 meters, tied together at the bottom end of the rod, with its ends pointing from the bottom made up the counter weight to the vertical wire. The antenna system worked quite well compared to earlier experiments with long wire antenna, simple dipol antennas, and kite lifted antennas.
Power was drawn from batteries or directly from the solar panels provided the sun was shining. Batteries were recharged using the solar panels as well. The amateur radio equipment is not a reliable communication equipment an issue that came apparent on this trip when an usual solar storm/eruption caused the short wave amateur radio bands to close almost completely for a couple of days.
During the bad weather period that I experienced there was no way to recharge the batteries using the solar panels. I decided not to use my radio equipment at all during that time in order to be able to use in case of an emergency situation.