Thunderpole silver rod

[Cactusjack1879]

Hi all. Fitted my silver rod earlier this week and assembled to the marks on the antenna. An swr of 2.5 was achieved. I thought I would raise the height to see if it made a difference........ only raied it 2 feet and swr less than 1 !!!!!!!! Happy days. I took the silver rod back down for now as I was afraid to leave it up in the storms. Does anyone know how much wind will one of these take?

[Enterprise]

Not too much stormy weather, the standard silver rods are very flimsy (including the Thunderpole one, Hygain and Sigma ones, including the unbranded jobbies), if you want a bent banana then buy one of these but be prepared to keep going up the ladder to fix it. I bought a Sirio GPE 5/8 wave 'rod' recently and it is of superior construction and is riding out this stormy weather perfectly.

[Cactusjack1879]

I've been thinking of making some kind of hinge system so I can lower it in bad wind. The answer eventually will to buy a more expensive antenna! Though a chap a few doors down from me still has his silver rod up since the early 1990's.........no longer in use and slightly bent but not too bad considering........

[Delta Charlie 698]

Hi,
Forgive the intrusion, but I’m having troubles. Got a venom half wave and an SWR of over 3. I didn’t see any pen marks on mine, and slid each section to a depth of 100mm inside the next. Is this too much? I also applied silicone to the outside of the joins for water ingress, as I didn’t want water in the bottom, as used to be a problem years ago.
Any help much appreciated

[Cactusjack1879]

Are you sure your coax lead connections are sound. Is the antenna high off the ground? Does the swr vary at all with length?

[Delta Charlie 698]

Are you sure your coax lead connections are sound. Is the antenna high off the ground? Does the swr vary at all with length?

Hi, thanks for your reply.
It’s mounted on a high chimney, so going to have to erect scaffolding to get to it again. I’ll let you know! Before I do this, is there any way I can electronically test the RG8 mini that I’ve got running into the aerial, in situ?

[Cactusjack1879]

Hi. If it's new there shouldn't be a problem with it. Check that you have wired the plugs correctly it's easy to make a mistake (some good advice on youtube) I have had problems with connections in the past causing similar. Make sure your shield wire isn't in contact with the core wire etc.

[Mr Benz]

Hi all. Fitted my silver rod earlier this week and assembled to the marks on the antenna. An swr of 2.5 was achieved. I thought I would raise the height to see if it made a difference........ only raied it 2 feet and swr less than 1 !!!!!!!! Happy days. I took the silver rod back down for now as I was afraid to leave it up in the storms. Does anyone know how much wind will one of these take?

The fixings are likely to be the weak link rather than the antenna . I'm about to put up my Thunderpole 5 on the wall of my 2 storey house using a 6ft crank pole with wall brackets top and bottom of the long end of the pole ( i.e. 5ft apart ) and pole as close to the wall as possible , just using the crank part to clear the roof gutter pipes , and brackets will be well secured with rawl bolts . Bottom of antenna will be level with roof gutters . I expect the TP5 will flex with the wind but not break ( previously had a Shakespeare Big Stick years ago , similar size fibreglass antenna and no issues over more than 10 years ) .

Also have an 8 element FM band 2 beam going up on a rotator on the gable end of my house ; that will be on a 16ft mast with 2 sets of T&K brackets down its length and rotator just at the apex of the roof . Blake UK spec antenna good for 200 mph winds , so all down to security of the fixings . Since the top ones will align with my loft , I may use threaded rod and put plates inside the loft to secure them , then it can't really go anywhere .