Optimizing portable base station antenna setup

[Sbsyncro]

I have a Radioddity DB20-G base station setup I use with my off-road camp trailer.  Typically I will put up a 25' mast that I top with an extra Midland MXTA26 antenna.  (yea, I know it is intended as a mobile antenna, but I have an extra, so why spend more money...?).  To mount it I use a Tram NMO-UHF antenna mount with radials.  The mast is a Milsurp sectional aluminum mast.  The aluminum mast is usually clamped to the tongue of my trailer and centered over a spike (sharpened rebar) that I drive into the ground.   I do not do anything specific for grounding.   I'm doing this based on casual (and perhaps inaccurate) knowledge gleaned over the years from sources like this forum.  I'd like to optimize what I have (and not reinvent the entire setup).

Questions:

• Are the radials necessary/beneficial?  (they are a hassle to install and are easily lost!) 
• Should I be taking specific steps to actually ground the mast other than just having contact with the earth?  (does it matter)
• Is there anything inherently wrong with using the 6bd MXTA26 antenna?  I'm sure there are $400 base station antennas that would be "better" but is there anything inherent;y *wrong* with using this one?
• Would swapping to a low gain (2db) 1/4 wave or "ghost" antenna be useful when in hilly terrain?  (I carry several NMO antenna with me when on trips so I can swap the rooftop antenna on the Jeep if there is a lot of overhead obstacles).

Thanks!

[gortex2]

LMR 400 for 35' feet. 

 

RG58 - Loss per 100 - 10.6db

LMR400 - Loss per 100 - 2.7

So at 35' of RG58 you are loosing almost 4db which is over 50% of signal loss and power. 

[kidphc]

Any antenna even a no groundplane antenna, hate that wording. Will perform better with a ground plane. So depends.

Grounding is for static electricity build up from the antenna and coax. I have antennas in the attic but due to dust blowing over the coax I put arrestor in. For a tremprory install not a necessity but nice. Be aware of this when off roading to a dry dusty area though, especially as winds pick up. No need to fry a radio. Then even an grounding spike would be nice. With that being said a lot of hams on sota/pota (summit/parks on the air) don't even ground.

Personally, for your type of setup. Especially, for solo hill type of excursions. I would build a tape measure yagi ( even though about tv rabbit year yagis, to be multi frequency resonant). Guess it depends on how the mast is secured and what it is. Betcha you it's a harbor freight flag pole, recommend all the time as permanent or portable mast, can't beat the $50 cost.

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[Sbsyncro]

43 minutes ago, kidphc said:

Personally, for your type of setup. Especially, for solo hill type of excursions. I would build a tape measure yagi ( even though about tv rabbit year yagis, to be multi frequency resonant). Guess it depends on how the mast is secured and what it is. Betcha you it's a harbor freight flag pole, recommend all the time as permanent or portable mast, can't beat the $50 cost.
 

Thanks for the info.  The use case for me is to have a "base camp" setup for coordinating with multiple groups of hikers and/or off-roaders in my club, not for hitting a fixed station, so a beam antenna would not be optimal. The mast will always be affixed to my small camp trailer, but needs to be omni-directional. Often I am in desert areas with no trees, so tossing a wire into a tree isn't normally an option.   I'm currently using a very heavy duty milsurp aluminum section mast (I linked to it in my original post) (6 x 4' sections) but its a PITA to set up solo, so I am also considering a telescoping pole like the one you describe, which would lighter weight and easier to extend to its full height).

[gortex2]

You need the radials. Id swap out the coax for a better cable. I did very similar on our campers for years and do the same for SAR on VHF every summer. A fiberglass painters pole works so much better and is lighter. We have a 30' aluminum mast for our SAR repeater but most of the check points use the fiberglass poles. They go up about 15' (ones we have) and work excellent for the antenna. I'd go to lowes or home depot and check out the poles they have. For our motorhome we had a 25' fiberglass flag pole that went in a mount. I tried our GMRS antenna (FG4600) once on it and while it worked it din't gain me any range so went back to the ladder mount. The ladder put it at 12' high already and in the environment the loss in cable didn't help with the height I gained. 

 

[Sbsyncro]

5 hours ago, gortex2 said:

You need the radials. Id swap out the coax for a better cable.

 

Here's the one I'm using.  what would you recommend, and why?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0912QL2JT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

[Sbsyncro]

Thank you. I had no idea that the choice of Coax could have such a profound effect!  Nor did I realize that I'd have to spend more on cable than I did on the radio.   LOL

[WRYZ926]

The best mobile/base radio will not work well with subpar coax and/or subpar antenna. It's hard to beat LMR400 or equivalent coax for VHF/UHF frequencies.