Topband: A word from the moderator

[Tree]

Just wanted to thank everyone for allowing a debate to take place here 
without it turning into a huge flame war.  It's so easy for these things
to turn into something personal.  I encourage everyone to try and keep
their posts centered on the issue being discussed.  

So far - I have only seen one UNSUBSCRIBE request as a result of the 
current discussion.  

I do have a technical opinion on the subject - but I think I will keep
quiet about it for now.  I am talking to some PHDs at work and using this
as an opportunity to learn something new - and also impress them with 
how much I have thought about this "problem".  

One thing to think about in this discussion - is where the current "goes"
as it diminishes as you work your way along a 1/4 wave wire (let's not
bring the inductor into it just now for this discussion).  I have never
really thought about this - but one of our signal integrity engineers
quickly said "return current".  Thinking about that - I guess it is 
pretty obvious that the current in the ground connection of a vertical
near the feedpoint is equal to the current going to the antenna element.

Return current can also be thought of as radiation.  Probably radiation 
resistance enters into this somewhere - but I am not smart enough yet 
to understand how that works.  :-)

Tree N6TR