Richard Fry wrote:
. . .
?? My reading of these NGs shows that many/most amateur radio
operators ignore/discount the fact that the peak radiation launched by
a vertical monopole of 5/8 lambda or less in height ALWAYS occurs in
the horizontal plane., regardless of the operating frequency, or the r-
f ground in use.

I don't think most amateurs care about the locally launched radiation,
except when dealing with local RFI. That low angle radiation decays to
essentially nothing within a few miles at HF and even less at VHF and
above. So it's of no use for communicating beyond a few miles.

The radiation/reception characteristics at low elevation angles of
such an antenna can be useful in establishing contacts with the most
distant possible single-hop DX sites, can they not?

RF

They can not. I see you're still a bit confused about what happens to
that ground wave signal. Beyond a few miles at HF, that low angle
radiation decays to essentially zero. The pattern of the field beyond
that distance resembles the one reported by EZNEC and other programs
giving distant far field data. And they correctly show that unless the
ground has very high conductivity at the reflection point, there will be
very little field remaining at very low angles beyond that ground wave
decay distance.

The performance of an antenna when communicating with a distant station
is precisely what EZNEC is attempting to show you. If you want to know
how it will do at various elevation angles for DX, or even at distances
of a few hundred miles, look at those plots. At HF, ground wave analysis
will only tell you how well the antenna will do when talking with
someone across town. Which is why there's very little interest in ground
wave analysis among amateurs, HF broadcasters, or just about anyone
except AM broadcasters.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL