Having been involved with WinLink since the days of PMBO's and the improvement from Pactor 2 to 3, I have always believed and supported the concept of HF email for emergencies.
Having one of the first agency provided early NEXUS gateways with a packet input, helped me to gain the experience needed. This system was at a training facility on batteries and had a "high speed" 9600 baud telephone modem for internet. Funding came from the county RACES program at a cost then of $3000.00.
I'm located in Greene County, VA in Ruckersville. That's about 15 miles north of Charlottesville. System is running on a dinosaur Dell Inspiron 820US laptop with an equally old GE MVS NPH20 VHF radio and a TNC-X. Antenna is a homemade J-pole up 30', soon to go up some more. Backup power by large UPS and also generator provides 24/7 operations. I'm currently running RMS Packet with RMS Relay for hold-and-forward when internet is down. I eventually plan on adding a WinMor HF system, but that's awaiting time to get it all together and tested.
VHF and HF RMS is contained in a 6' x 19" rack.
100aHr battery at bottom powers both radios and modems only.
25 amp power supply floats battery at 13.3v via blocking diode.
1100va UPS powers computer CPU only. (LCD monitor on house AC)
HF Radio is Icom 7200. SCS Dragon 7800 in use for modem.
VHF Radio is HTX 242 modem is a KPC-3.
Also have 40 db BCI reject filter to block out local AM radio
stations. Antenna switches a must for lightning protection
as well as PolyPhasers.