Oh yeah, it needs power, forgot to mention that. You can daisy-chain smaller generators to produce enough power, but your camp can start looking ghetto. I just built a fusion gen to be done with it, but that thing is massive.
To deploy the tent I think it's F for favorites and T to place the tent? Something like that.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss