On May 2, 7:23 am, Cecil Moore wrote:
J. B. Wood wrote:
Then there's a university EE professor who should know the theory and ends
up supporting misguided concepts like the crossed-field antenna (CFA).

Then there are the people on this newsgroup who presuppose
that the lumped circuit model is adequate for analyzing 75m
Texas Bugcatcher coils.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

Well, it is, as far as designing the antenna. What advantage would
knowing about any current "taper" give you? None that I can see.
The design of the antenna will still end up the same, either way
you go about it. The loading coil will still be at the same height,
which is more a practical and mechanical problem, rather
than considering any taper of current across the coil.
To me, this is one of those things that might be handy to consider,
maybe more for designing very complex loaded antennas, ??
but not the run of the mill bugcatcher.
Even with complex arrays, I'm not sure if it would help you too much.
I'd be surprised if any increase of gain from applying this knowledge
would exceed 1 db. Than I'd have to ask...How *would* you apply
this knowledge.
I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but I don't see much advantage
in considering current taper across a short lumped coil. I'm
still going to mount my coils in the same places, which is generally
as high as I can get them. I'm more worried about current distribution
across the whole whip, than I am the short coil alone.
MK