Topband: 5/8 wavelength vertical is mo bettathan shorterversions??

[Tom W8JI]

> Quite a bit of the radiation from 5/8 wave verticals is at relatively high
> elevation angles - above 40 degrees elevation.
>

There is a tendency to look at patterns and think (quite wrongly) a lobe in 
a useless place is robbing enough energy from a desirable place to noticably 
degrade performance.

Except for receiving, a severe problem making an antenna a "dog" is almost 
never where the high angle stuff or out-of-pattern stuff is. No one really 
notices sidelobe power that might only "waste" a dB or two, or even 3 dB.

The real problem behind something being a profound "underacheiver" is 
virtually always when a significant lack of signal appears in useful places. 
It is the significant lack that really matters, not the perceived waste.

The 5/8th wave, near a large flat ground, is a good groundwave antenna 
within the area where sky wave might appear. It can even be good, under the 
right circumstances, on bands that have really low angles of propagation.

The loss of signal that appears at the more common wave angles just kills it 
for all around 160 use. Almost everyone who uses a 5/8th on 160 (or to a 
lesser extent on 80) recognizes that pretty fast.

Tom