5/8 Silver Rod Installation

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Is there not more support at the corner or in the middle where the batten is.
Looks like my new shack ant that is where the strength is in mine.

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dig a 4foot deep and about a foot square hole buy a six foot scaffy pole knock it down to a foot sticking out of the ground and get some bags of postcreat fill the hole up two about 8 inches buy a scaffy joiner knights sell and put you 20ft scaffy pole and antenna in the scaffy joiner and tighten the 4 bolts and then you will have a better base then your shed sides

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You can't beat a good antenna raising, the business with the plate reminds me somewhat of the security modifications I have made to my own shed after some reprobate broke in and stole the petrol lawn-mower I must have had for all of a week and used just once. My own silver rod/half wave vertical ringo came down with the recent high winds, only a slight bend in the top section so all is well and with the few nice days we are having it looks as though it may be back up sooner than expected with the addition of some guy lines this time...maybe a few winds of duct tape over the extension pole joins too, it lifted it right out! It is always interesting to see the solutions people come up with for antennas, with the challanges of today's living with smaller gardens, planning and restrictions, nosy neighbours, and of course; her indoors to name but a few.

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Only one neighbour has been an issue, it was no surprise who it was in fairness, this woman seems to pro-actively seek out things to be unhappy about.  I went for "temporary" installation and once it had been up and down two-three times it was just left up.  The local authority tried to charge me a fee for having CCVT cameras up when the antenna complaint came in.  "Here, Governer, do you have a license for those cameras?"   It never ends with these people trying to charge you a fee with their rules that they appear to make up as they go along I notice.  Do you know what a "licence" really is?  It is when they take away your God given right to do something and sell it back to you!  The paperwork went swiftly in the bin, and I just put the phone down when one of them called me, they never called back as they know they didn't have a leg to stand on.  

I spoke to another chap locally on the radio about it, they had done something similar to him, as
a teen he put a wooden shed up and they pushed him into applying for planning permission and paying a fee.  Being younger and still at his parents his mum thought it best he "did it the right way" unaware that wooden sheds are temperarly structures and no planning application is required.  The other neighbours have been great though with a couple striking up conversations about their DXing back in the day, one had two sigma 4 antennas (vector 4000 now I believe) set up as twin co-phasers on flats which I would have very much liked to see such a spectacle and had a shot of his Sommercamp radio fed into them.     Another guy told me he didn't mind what I put up so I am planning on slowly adding to them over time, leave it for a spell than add something else. I feel as long as you are more or less sticking to the guidelines it's not as though anybody is going to take a measure to it once it's 30-40 feet in the air and they do appear far smaller from a distance.  

Fortunately, I had picked up a second hand bargain with the mower, it was a profesional one you would get of you had a landscaping business maybe, it ended up being more of a short term rental but they ripped a large section from the front of the shed where the hasp and shed-alarm (for all the good it did) was bolted onto.  I now have metal reinforcements and a chain bolted to the side to secure items to inside of it.  If it's not bolted down they will take it in this day and age.  I do remember going out and not locking the doors, the police are hopeless too, I had an attempted break in, three days later they appeared, refusing to take an item the would be thief had clearly handled to check for fingerprints.  I honestly wonder just whose side they are on these days with the criminal seemingly having more rights than victim in this day and age?

Anyway, these things are sent to try us, I am currently looking into guy lines to get the antenna back up as I am missing out on some great conditions it seems, I have had some great contacts on 20m with a wire doublet in the loft but I enjoy nothing more than hearing those DX stations coming in on my CB and silver rod.  It is the simplicity of it, I spoke to an ex-pat recently on the coast of Spain just on his multimode CB and a wire vertical he had made himself...what else do you need?

I suppose the roof of the shed is out of the question.  We have a small garage fairly useless to get a car inside it, She uses 90% of it for storage, I get 10% for the bike and tool box. Love her to death. Anyways,  can't seem to load a picture (I'm not PC smart by anymeans)   running  8  3m long ground radials on mine .(Silver rod 5/ 8 )  around 8m from the base to the ground.  Yes DX conditions have been  great.  I haven't made any Div 26 contacts as of yet, but plenty of Div14.   I live in a unincorporated part of town/city, it can be a good thing most times, others,  just have to deal with some neighbors shenanigans.  2CT351 N Colorado

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46cm sounds a lot Wayne but then again i haven't played around with the old silverod for years but remember some needing big adjustments.

Knights have a note against the 5/8 silver rod on their web page which says "We have found 5/8 wave antennas without large groundplanes do not swr as easily as a 1/2 wave". Some of the issues people have found, and possibly the reason for you having to make a major adjustment, might be because of the closeness it is mounted to the ground.

Really pleased you've got it sorted though as it won't be long *fingers crossed* that the Euro skip will start regularly rolling in

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Nice, you're all set to go now Wayne  There's been a quite a bit of Brazil coming in on 11m late evening's last couple of nights, to my QTH anyways.

No one gave me a rig check on ch19 FM around here until Scotland rolled in on the skip last year  Hopefully there's a few more local people on the air around by you.

Put my silver rod up on sunday attached to the dogs pen,hopefully get some success will send pics when done,newbie question swr when in final position or before it goes up.have seen vids on youtube of guys doing both to me it seems logical to do it in antennas final position, also picked up a lot of brazil in car on a president bill on sat

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