Not only will having the base grounded make it more
stable, it also provides a much better return to earth if
you take a spark. Providing you ground the base well,
anyway... It acts as a lightning rod.
So you want to ground it like one.
You could make a hinge. Some use a tower section,
and adapt the holes, thrust bearings, etc to fit a mast.
You could also weld a heavy plate, etc, with a short
pipe stub to fit masts into. That could be hinged to a base
plate. I have a tower that is set up this way. It's tilt over at
the base, and also crank up...The base and hinge part
was made down at the shipyard using ship steel.
*Very* heavy duty...The pieces were cut out on a CRC
plasma table that they cut pieces of ship steel on...
The thing will stand up by itself in the middle of a field,
even with the tower raised, and the beam on it, with no guys...
But I guy it to be safe...I've been taking it to field days the
last few years..I've got "drive on" mast holders that were
made from the same heavy stuff. You could rig one of those
to hinge on a baseplate no problem. MK