Topband: Tophat? Does it have to be at the top?

[i4jmy at iol.it]

If the hat has the purpose of substantially loading a short element in the most efficient possible way, then it has to be at the top of the element.
If the hat has instead the purpose of loading an element whose lenght (phisical or electrical) is already close to resonance, in other words if the hat is small, then the hat works like a fine tuning device, without affecting in practice the antenna performances/characteristics. 
Because of the above, when the hat is small, or better to say when the loading required for final antenna resonance is not big, the position of the hat is not necessarily at the extreme top of the element.

73,
Mauri I4JMY

>  
> My question is:  Does a tophat always have to be at the top?  Or could
> it be a "Collar", half way
> up the vertical and maybe called a "Scarf"?
>  
> K2WH