So I have now settled on, and purchased what appears to be one of the best antennas out there. Now the bits and pieces are trickling in.
I'll need help and explanations along the way. What I ended up with is a HiQ Military Antenna, purchased from Charlie over at
http://www.hi-q-militaryantennas.com/mh-mobile.html Pictured in the center is the MOV antenna. I ordered several options for it so I have a lot of configuration options, the ruggedized whip, the Military spring base, the tripod, DC Controller/Turns Counter, EB-8 Caphat, Fold over, and a few other odds and ends.
My intention first, is to rig it up on the tripod, and deploy it as a base at home. I ordered per a friend of AD's the best Coax I could get, Times Microwave LMR400 for the base installation, and LMR240 for the Mobile Installation.
On the Mobile Rig, I will have two mounting options, depending on conditions, hitch mount, or roof rack mount (the roof rack mount will need to be fabricated).
The first project will be to get it set up and debugged on the tripod. I don't have all the pieces yet, but I started assembling things, to see what it will look like.
I am curious about doing something a little slicker with regard to counterpoise, and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on how to optimize / measure counterpoise. I was thinking I would like to make a fancier counter poise similar to the ATAS120, which is a metal ring, with several radials attached. Evidently, nobody that I have seen has done much with a tripod setup.