First, the power supply doesn't draw 20A at 120V. It supplies up to 20A at 13.8VDC. That is 276 watts out of the supply, maximum. Assuming the supply is 80% efficiency, that's 331 watts going into the supply on the 120VAC side. 331W div by 120V = 2.76A being drawn at 120VAC.

Be sure to add in wattage for all the other accessory equipment plus plenty of extra capacity in determining the generator capacity.

Where are you reading the SWR and Power? You should be connected as follows:
   TX - PWR/SWR - TUNER - FEEDLINE - ANTENNA

If the TX is only putting out 10W to the antenna but full power to a dummy load then the SWR at the transmitter is not acceptable when the antenna is connected. You need to adjust the tuner for minimum SWR with the antenna connected and in place. You will need to readjust it every time you change band/frequency.

Are you talking about a V-beam or an inverted-V? With a V-beam the wires forming the V are parallel to the Earth and must be wavelengths long in order to exibit any gain. Unless the ends of the V are terminated, the pattern is bidirectional on a line that is centered between the V wires. In order to cover E-W and N-S the two V-beams would have to be oriented 90 degrees to each other, not back to back.

I'd say no. Nothing that you could attach externally to the base would be sufficient to hold a free standing tower. When towers are bolted to the base you use "L" bolts that are inserted into the concrete before it hardens. When wind blows against a free standing tower it tries to tilt over, pulling upward on one set of bolts. You might get away with it on a guyed tower because the guy wires convert the wind pressure to downward pressure on the base.

It costs money for a manufacturer to get his radio FCC certified (its no longer called "type acceptance") for use on commercial frequencies. Even if the ham radio was capable of meeting the technical requirements a mfg may decide that it is not worth the cost to have it certified for commercial use. He would have to increase the price of the radio in order to cover the certification costs but the majority of hams don't need the certification and would not purchase the more expensive radio.

There may also be user limitations required for certification that are not easily compatible with ham radio use. Commercial users are often prevented from selecting or programming in frequencies that they are not authorized to use (this would include the ham bands). In some cases certification requires that users be prevented from connecting external antennas (also not compatible with typical ham radio operation).

So, its not a simple matter of slapping a certification sticker on a ham transceiver so that it can be used for both ham and commercial services.

When I was commuting every day (that was back when 2M repeaters were really active - before cell phones), I found after a while that the HT was often not installed due to the hassle of hooking it up each day before the trip. I ended up with a mobile rig permanently installed so all I had to do is turn it on.

An HT in the house wasn't very practical for me either. I had to stand in just the right spot on one leg while facing east in order to be full quieting into the repeater 

Don't worry about the vehicle warranty. You'd have to do a really bad install to void the warranty.

I agree that power can sometimes help if you are trying to beak a pile up with brute force. However, good technique and proper timing often gets you the contact at lower power levels. You don't need to be the loudest signal on the band, you only need to be the loudest signal calling at the time when the DX station is listening.

Propagation makes a lot more difference in received signal strength than any amount of power that you can legally run. Propagation can work for or against you. Its quite possible for a QRP station to be received a 10dB/S9 while a 1.5KW station is only an S3 - due to propagation differences.

That's not been my experience. The CC&Rs are agreed to (proffered) by the developer BEFORE the development is approved by the county planning and zoning board. Those CC&Rs are in place and enforced by the developer until such time as an HOA takes over. The CC&Rs are filed at the courthouse and go with the land from owner to owner, even if no HOA is ever put in place. Once the developer leaves if there is no active HOA then it will be up to the individual land owners to enforce the CC&Rs through the courts (or I suppose the county could take you to court to enforce them). My development, now about 30 years old, is an example. There is not (and never has been) an active HOA but I do have CC&Rs on my property. Fortunately it doesn't say anything about antennas but it does include things like no chain link fences in the front yard, no barnyard animals, etc.

I've been involved in a couple of rezoning issues for organizations where we've had to agree to proffered CC&Rs under threat of disapproval of the application. The county's got their list of things they'd like you to add and its not to your benefit to argue with them unless you have a very good justification.

"Just an FYI Reciprocity is a myth:"

No its not. Reciprocity involves the measured parameters of an antenna like forward gain, front to back ratio, radiation pattern, etc. It doesn't include the effects of things external to the antenna such as noise, etc. An antenna that has a measured gain of 3dB on transmit will also have a measured gain of 3dB on receive. Reciprocity doesn't necessarily mean that you will copy stations any better with it because it may also increase the noise level by 3dB.

I don't know about other areas, but in my area I have seen first hand that CC&Rs are usually negotiated with the county and proffered by the developer in an effort to get county approval for the development. For the most part they are not market driven - they are essentially controlled by the county government. The county likes it because they don't have to pass and enforce laws. The homeowners have to "voluntarily" agree to them in order to purchase the property and if they don't abide by them the the HOA goes to court and enforces them.

It's legal blackmail. No CC&Rs - no approval for the development!

97.115 states that, with certain limitations, the 3rd party may participate in stating the message. That means to me that the FCC does indeed consider that it is 3rd party traffic even if the person is present and personally speaking into the microphone. It then follows that the person cannot legally speak to a country that does not have a 3rd party agreement with the U.S.

The only time it is not 3rd party traffic is if the control operator himself is generating and speaking the message (i.e. no other parties involved).

Even if the other person present is a licensed ham it is still 3rd party traffic UNLESS he has been designated a control operator of the station. That's contained in the FCC's Q&A section.

I would expect that the feed impedance of each antenna is 50 Ohms. If you remove the phasing harness and connect the feed line directly to one of the antennas that should work.

http://www.w8ji.com/rhombic_antennas.htm

A Vbeam is half of a rhombic and is typically several wavelengths long per leg. The Vbeam described in the reference is 4 wavelengs long per leg on 40M and gives a gain of 6dB over a dipole. Unless you have quite a sizable attic I doubt that you can make it large enough to exhibit any gain over a dipole on 40M. In addition, the ductwork and wiring in the house are quite likely to distort the pattern and lower the gain in the desired direction.

1) If it's a newer home it could be an arc-fault breaker. They contain electronics that could be sensitive to RF.

2) Something powered by that circuit could be sensitive to RF and overloading the circuit.

Not so bad now that they've dropped the CW requirement