Topband: Modeling "Ground" and losses

[Tom W8JI]

> If the total energy flowing into the monopole system with buried radials 
> is dictated only by its hard-wired connection through the transmission 
> line back to the transmitter, then what is accounting for the reduction of 
> its radiated power?

Nothing I said even remotely implies loss would be the same as things are 
changed, so the question or "exercise" is completely meaningless to the 
topic.

I said the system is complex. I said radial current comes from more than one 
cause. I said it is far more than just a simple transference of current from 
soil to the radials.

The radials are directly exposed to antenna fields. The radials are directly 
connected to the antenna feedline. If they are anywhere near soil or in 
soil, they are coupling to the soil. The soil is part of the system. A fence 
near the radials is part of the system. Unconnected wires are part of the 
system. A lake or ocean near the antenna is part of the system.

It is a huge mix of things interacting, not just a boy and his radial, with 
the radial collecting currents only from the soil.

By definition, soil or not, the radials have current. By definition, 
connected to the feedpoint or not, the radials (like any conductor around an 
antenna) will have current.

But if that isn't enough, the field strength change of a model doesn't even 
prove what physically happens. The model just estimates or calculates a 
result. It might be spot on, but it just is a calculated summary of results 
of many things.

73 Tom