"John Smith" said -
I could be mistaken, however, I think the radiation patten (and
receive
patten) would, at least, be slightly affected by a mis-match...
whether
this would justify going to extreme means of correction is
debatable...

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John, your level of analysis is far, far above that justified by the
simplicity of the problem(s).

Just get some wire in the air and see how well it works.
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Reg, G4FGQ