Steve, I'd arrived at. Does the current really taper away to zero at the open ends or is that effect swamped by ground capacitance when it's only 0.5% of a wavelength above ground? The RF current at
Hello Do not be tempted to droop the ends of any top wires. ... I challenge that. My umbrella antenna 18m high with 5 pieces of top-load radials sloping downwards (each about 7 m long) works fine (se
Martyn, Advice from Mike is similar to what I would advise. Expanding on one point: possible in the antenna is beneficial. It will resonate with lower inductance and therefore lower resistive losses.