Ron and anon — both of you should join AMRRON. Look it up. ARRL field day is nice but these guys pass real traffic instead of just making contacts. They do a lot of digital work.
I have that solar setup you guys are considering for just the same purpose anon is planning on, and it’s correct to go small in terms of transmit power and computing resources. Otherwise you wind up spending all your money on solar. Also, plan on specific operational periods each day, with the rest of the time powered down.
Finally, you’ll need two types of antennas: A beam like a lightweight spiderbeam if you plan on going mobile, or a heavier spiderbeam or cobweb antenna on a rotor if you’re staying put. The second antenna will be an 80m/40m NVIS antenna for regional comms. Third is a VHF beam and VHF omni.
VHF covers out to 50 miles depending on terrain, more with repeater. NVIS covers 50-400 miles, and the beam goes for 400-whatever conditions support.
After AMRRON’s recent readiness exercise I’m undertaking this exact project. Before I had 80-40-20-10 in inverted V and a single omni VHF/UHF. Was not successful in passing any real traffic. One voice contact and several JS8Call contacts was it. Time to get real.