silver rod swr

well i seem to be having trouble swr'ing my silver rod i have the ant at the moment  poking out about four feet out of the tree and though it has it's own ground planes i have fixed an earth wire on to the ant and on a steel bar in the ground and i cant get the swr down even when i loosen the bottom jubilee clip and drop the ant down , do you think im dropping it too much at a time ? the ant is a venom high gain silver rod 1/2 wave 4.5 db gain

I have had two in the last 2 years and they both had a mark (Marker pen) on each section, I used the marks and both gave a reasonably swr reading.
Good luck.

yes this one does on every section but after i have tried to set the swr it just swings into the red (over 3)

In that case Lionel, I would say either a bad antenna or Coax/pl259 connections.

ok the coax is new with factory fitted pl259's and the antenna is new also so here is the thing , do antennas have to have a pole at the base as i have screwed my ant directly to the tree and the screws are through the holes where you would normally fasten the pole hoops, but as i have said before i have put an earth wire on the ant/ pole fixing and into the ground , have i done wrong ?   

Good Morning Skyrider

Just a question . what is the coax type and length.
Sometimes going back to basics can help. Can you take off the ground plane you fitted and put the antenna on a fence post temporarily on its own  , does  not matter at this stage its just for testing purposes .It just takes out any possible problems.  I think the tree may have adverse affect surrounding it etc. A silly question on the swr meter that you know forward and reflected switching  . sorry to ask . Yes the antenna  on a pole does help, but the outer shield of the coax can be a counterpoise it self. Hopefully no offence is taken with these questions etc. Hope this is a start into fixing your issue. Please keep us informed as you go along.

Kind Regards John  CT4515. :D:D

Id start by removing the earth wire

right the coax is RG58 and it is 22ft (7m) is that too thin and too short ?

a few years ago when i sold my midland radio i also sold the guy my proper home base coax and my silver rod , so moral of story keep all your old stuff because someday you are going to need it 

ps good morning John and no offence taken  

morning chazwozza one thing i did notice the swr problem was exactly the same after i had put the earth lead on as it was in the first place so i don't think it's doing any good anyway

Have you got a multimeter to test the coax pin to pin and outer to outer and so on for a short.
Can't see the tree giving you end to end bad SWR.
My money is on the coax.
You do the set/fwd and get it to zero then flick the switch to ref and it goes to the red ?????.

now then just been outside in the damp and cool weather to have another go at the ant/coax and i discovered that the pl259 wasn't screwing into the ant because the threads are knackered , the threads on the ant are ok because i tried with a patch lead which worked so i have just got in touch with rocket radio that i bought the coax off to see if they will send me a replacement so now waiting for an answer

Hi Alan we wait with baited breath and see if we get a favourable answer i hope so seeing as i got the silver rod off them as well 

You got anybody local to you that could fit you a new pl259.
Just a thought as well you will need to tape then up after to stop any water getting in they aren't water tight the fitted plugs.

im thinking of taking the coax off as it's no good as it is, and no cb shops handy perhaps a tv shop could help me out anyway see what happens with rocket radio

plus i would still like to know if the rg 58 is good enough

rg58 is where we all started i bet.
It will do the job but you can get better.
I use 8x not the best but does the job for me plus i only have shortish run's it's the next one up fron rg50 but a tad thicker.

at the moment im on a 7 metre length and i think i will get some thicker stuff anyway

The 8x is plenty good enough plus easy to work with.

great that's the stuff i will go for then thanks Alan ps is that the RG 8X thanks

rocket radio have been in touch and Mark says he will sort it

Hope they are quick.
I hate waiting lol.

so do i 

Hi skyrider

Thank you for update . Turns out to be possibly the coax , well you would think from a radio shop that it would be checked  . Hope you get a new one soon with good coax plugs on. 
RG58 is a good  for shorter runs , but as everyone has said you can get better.
Good luck .

Regards John