In that case, the gains are identical. A vertical "planted into the
earth" exhibits a higher gain (given many other considerations) than
an elevated vertical - be that elevated vertical be a dipole or a
ground plane design (which is simply another dipole, albeit rather
more elaborate).



I don't have much experience with earth verticals.... mostly HF I
would say, and that's another animal altoghther than the question the
original poster raised here on VHF antennas.

The vast majority of my experience with groundplanes and verticals is
at VHF and above. Every reference and factory specification for
standard grounplane and vertical dipole antennas I've seen indicates the
standard vertical dipole has a horizontal gain of 3 dBi, and the
groundplane 2.1 dBi. I don't know where some others are finding the
non-industry standard figures I have seen cited here.



Ed K7AAT