The rod is a round pin about 3 inches long. It goes in the back of the
antenna base. I broke two of the bases installing my antenna. I guess I didn't break
two. I broke one. I then had a professional installer do the second
installation. He broke the second base. The base breaks easy as it is cast metal. Also
when we got the antenna together it would not go up. There is a little pin in
the gear that was a fraction of an inch too long. Its a hard antenna to work
on. jauman