The extreme example comes from continuous loading. The entire antenna is
a solenoid or coil of wire. The impedance at the tip is very high. At
its feedpoint, the impedance is low. The current in the coil tapers from
one end to the other. Adding conductors to either or both ends of the
coil changes the current but does not usually eliminate current taper in
the coil.
Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI
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It is important to make clear it is NOT a linear taper.
The current and voltage are distributed along the helix in Sine or
Cosine-form as with a 1/4-wave resonant wire antenna.
Adding conductors to its ends merely truncates the same kind of
distribution.
This applies to both short-and-fat and long-and-thin helices.
Instead of confusing the issue by stretching the imagination and messing
about with reflections and standing waves, analysis of behaviour is more
simply and accurately done by basic transmission line formulae.
Which automatically takes the coil's all-important capacitance to the rest
of the world into account.
Zo = Sqrt(L/C).
Velocity = 1/Sqrt(L*C).
Phase shift = Omega*Sqrt(L*C).
It's as simple as that!
PS. Replace "does not usually eliminate" with "never eliminates"
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Regards, Reg.
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