My trusty Sears/Generac 3500 watt generator worked like a champ in the 12
days I was out of power during one of last year's hurricanes. However it
is too big to fit in my car to take to some other site such as on Field
Day.

When I saw the 3000 watt generators in Walmart, they appeared to be small
enough to fit in the trunk of my car, and looked well made. They are made
in China, and carry the "ETQ" brand from Eastern Tools and Equipment
company, model TG3000. They cost somewhat less than similar Sears, Briggs
& Stratton, et cetera generators.

The generator comes with a manual, a tool kit in a pouch and a small round
screen that may be intended to be installed in the exhaust pipe as a spark
arrestor.

When I went to the ETQ web site (http://easterntools.com/), I noticed that
this generator seems to be a stripped-down version of the one shown
there. It has no volt meter, or 12 and 240 volt outlets. I haven't
checked, but is possible there are two 120 volt windings that are
connected in parallel.

There is also a question about whether the 3000 watts is peak or
continuous power, depending on whether you go by the manual that came with
it (peak) or the manual downloaded from the ETQ web site (continuous).
Either way, I think it would handle my refrigerator and a few lights
following another hurricane, or several Ham rigs at Field Day.

Using a couple of heating elements totaling 1250 watts, I measured the
noise level. According to my Radio Shack sould level meter, the maximum
level at about one meter distance, was 94 dB. The old Sears/Generac 3500
watt generator measured 99 dB SPL with the same load. You wouldn't want
to sleep in a tent next to it, but it wouldn't be bad at the other end of
a 50 foot extension cord. (Going from one meter to sixteen meters,
roughly 50 feet, the level should be down 24 dB, to about 70 dB SPL.)

The most serious negative observation was that routine maintenance items
appear to be proprietary. Part numbers given are ETQ3000TG62 for the
spark plug, and ETQ3000TG76 for the air filter element. Five years from
now when new ones are needed, will the company still be there? I expect
there are commonly available parts that would work, but how can you be
sure you have the right spark plug?

73, Fred, K4DII