On Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:08:24 -0500, John Ferrell
wrote:

While there is no "best solution" to most antenna configurations,
understanding the decisions you make and utilizing the available
resources make a big difference in the outcome.

Hi John,

True, this has everything to do with utility.

I hope you guys can keep the thread going for a while, you are
answering questions that I have been unable to ask!

It's easier to keep the thread going (productively) if you could choke
up a question.

If I were to rummage for key points in the hopes of doing what you
ask, I could as easily bore you (everyone).

Fishing for just such an example, and returning to both drooping
radials on a 5/8ths and how that might cause this design to suffer
equally with the worst of J-Pole performances, let's look at the
silhouette of the 5/8ths with drooping radials:

Overall, it gives us a radiator that starts out 5/8ths tall (radials
out at 90 deg), or gets "taller" as those radials droop. In the
extreme (radials fallen to 0 deg), we now have a 7/8ths tall radiator
(my aforementioned OCF vertical dipole). Neglecting problems of
feedpoint Z, this radiator lobe pattern could be pushed beyond the two
towards developing four lobes. Without checking this in EZNEC (left
for the student to perform), this could result in transforming an
already higher gain antenna into becoming a cloud warmer.

This (the additional, higher lobes) is often the fate of the J-Pole
when the line that feeds it becomes part of the radiator. We get
glowing reports of how well J-Poles have been built and matched, and
sometimes grief over how deaf they are (How could this be?).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC