Reg Edwards wrote:
Roy, I prefer my radiation patterns to be functions of the antenna
itself. After all, that's what it's all about.

That's just fine. All antenna modeling programs I know of allow
selection of a free space environment, which gives you just what you want.

To determine the field strength at a distance I prefer not to take any
notice of Eznec's misleading ideas on the state of the ionosphere

EZNEC makes no assumptions about the state of the ionosphere, or even
its existence.

or
groundwave loss and do my own calculations.

The only assumption EZNEC makes in its far field analysis about ground
wave loss is that at an infinite distance it's infinite. The
professional EZNEC programs, which do directly report far field ground
wave signal strength when requested, use the Norton approximations
(implemented in NEC) which are widely accepted.

Or I can follow up Eznec
by using a program dedicated to either groundwave or ionospheric
propagation.

I agree preferences will differ. But it is important to understand
exactly what radiation patterns do or do not mean.

With that I agree wholeheartedly.

Please do not take this note as any criticism of Eznec. It is a
valuable (and free) calculating resource. But, as you demonstrate, it
is difficult to describe in a few words exactly what it does.

Please simplify!

First a note, EZNEC is not free. It's copyrighted, commercial software.
Only the EZNEC demo program is free and can be copied and distributed
freely.

Like other powerful tools, EZNEC requires some effort on the part of the
user to understand its use. If you're not willing to make that effort, I
suggest that you not use it, but find (or write) a program that suits
you and your limited willingness to learn. [Give NEC-2 or MININEC a
try!] All types of EZNEC, including the demo program, include a
comprehensive and extensively indexed manual. I also recommend the ARRL
antenna modeling course, which numerous users have made positive
comments about. But both of those are useful only to people who want
more than to get a quick answer without taking any time to consider what
the answer means.

I'll leave it to you and others to produce simple programs which do one
specific, simple thing. There's a place for those, but also a place for
more versatile programs like EZNEC which unavoidably require a bit more
effort to fully use.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL