Ooops,

I wrote:
> When the topload is raised, and if everything scales
> nicely, the area of the base of the cone increases with the square of
> topload height.

I was thinking of a "point source"... A 40 meter wire is of course a
rather "stretched" point so there will be a "tent" instead of a cone :-)

If the topload L >> H then the "Laurencian Area" covered will probably
scale almost linearly with topload height (and length!). What happens
at the ends is just a small portion of the total capacitance when L >> H.

Increasing the "Laurencian Area" beyond a certain point may be a case of
diminishing returns unless the "absolute resistance" of the galvanic
grounding point(s) is very low.

Just a few thoughts...

73
Johan SM6LKM