Mal, Rick etc.

I am an amateur amateur, I experiment!

I cage the coil, the ant current goes up by ten percent, therefore it's
better ( several exclamation marks would go here but I only have one
left...)
The reason it's better and not worse (by 0.000003dB) is, I surmise, that the
coil is no longer dissipating power into nearby lossy items. Hedge, fence,
grass etc.
Seems blindingly obvious to me really (more exclamation marks).
I can't put the coil in the middle of the lawn because my wife would get
fried when she hung out the washing (sorry about the gender-stereotyping
there.)
I reckon one could usefully cage the bottom few feet of one's vertical feed
wire if it was surrounded by bushes.......  Don't say "cage the whole thing"
please! (Oh, there goes the last one..)

Dave 'YXM

Shielding the coil (done properly - avoiding short circuit turns) would
make my signal 0.000003dB weaker.

73, Rik ON7YD