I built my radio go box based on this basic plan.
http://solarburrito.com/build-your-own-solar-power-generator/I put it in an old pelican case with a 7 amp hour battery. I also put in extra connections so I could hook up more than one solar panel. The radio uses about a half an amp per hour for stand by, and 1 amp per hour for transmitting. So without a solar panel, you would get 14 hours of monitoring. If you add the panels, you can extend the battery life. The panels I have will take 7 hours of sun to charge my battery. Assuming I am not using the battery.
The whole thing with solar panels is that they don't produce very much power to recharge the battery. So if you plan on running something 24 hours a day, you will need more panels and more batteries.
In an attempt to go "off grid" I did some playing around with the idea of powering a small college dorm sized refrigerator. The number of panels I was going to need, the inverter, and the number of batteries needed was just going to cost too much.
Anyway, its a fun project to play with.