Art wrote:
"I just completed an experiment with my antenna optimizer program where
I had a dipole in free space and where I increased the diameter until it
was close to .003 ohms resistive. What this means is the current flow is
right at the surface where there is no skin depth penetration involved
and it is close to zero material resistance. This means the total
resistance is the resistance of the surface encapsulating particles. The
radiation was 35 db in a shape close to that of a sphere."

Ask yourself if the exerimental results are reasonable.

According to Terman:
"Radio waves are produced to some extent whenever a wire in open space
carries a high-frequency current. The laws governing such radiation are
obtained by using Maxwell`s equations to express the fields associated
with the wire; when this is done there is found to be a component,
termed the radiated field, having a strength that varies inversely with
the distance."

The simple very short elemental dipole has a figure of eight pattern
cross section and produces a power gain of 1.5 over an isotropic
radiator, which produces the same radiation in all directions. 1.5 =
about 2 db power gain as 3 db represents about 2X the power.

"Radiation close to that of a sphere" is close to isotropic or uniform
in all directions, the standard for 0 db gain, not 35 db.

About the only asvantage of a fat or cylindrical dipole is broader
bandwidth than a thin wire dipole which has the same gain, is cheaper,
lighter, and has less wind loading.

One beautiful day if Art keeps trying he may have an original idea that
works.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI