Topband: More anecdotal "stories" to cause one to stop and....

[James Rodenkirch]

...think that there's "more to understanding" horizontal and vertical antennas on Top Band.
Listening to a fella on 80 SSB this morning about his experiences with a vertical 1/4 wave and a horizontal loop on Top Band.
He said he had both up and used them over a 20+ year period and noticed that one would work better than the other for DX.  For five years or so the loop would outperform, for a couple of years the two would be equal and then for about five years the vertical would do better.
One can easily point to the 12 year period as aligned with the Solar Cyclef BUT -- when I look at the radiation patterns for both I see the loop as a hugely efficient NVIS antenna with little low angle radiation.  Sooooo, I think there are some magnetic anomalies at play here but -- if the radiation angles don't change, how does one work "mo betta" than the other?
I do have the ON4UN book and will start diving in to it more to see if John can shed some light on this topic AND I don't wanna start a cuss and discuss session here (I know many of you already understand what influences the above "observations" so I don't want to rekindle any previous "debates) but.....if someone can direct me to specific sections of John's book or lother papers/websites, I would appreciate it!!  
I consider myself a "newbie" re Top Band" propagation and "other 'influencers'" on antenna performance (I do understand gray line, the various ionized layers and all of that) but anxious to learn more - thank you, in advance, for any "direction" you can point to so I can learn.  Replies off line are probably mo betta - don't need to get any pissin' contests agoin'!  Hi Hi
72, Jim Rodenkirch