[TowerTalk] Why horizontally polarized antennas?

[jimlux]

Rick Karlquist wrote:
> Kelly Johnson wrote:
>> I've always thought this as well, but others have claimed this is not
>> true.  Can anyone explain why this is the case?
> 
> That's easy.  Ground waves are always vertically polarized.
> Thus if the noise is from a ground based source, and starts
> out with both polarizations, only the vertical polarization
> survives any significant distance propagating along the ground.
> This of course is why AM BCB stations are vertically polarized.
> 
> I have taken portable vertical antennas out to places away
> from any power lines and they are as quiet as a churchmouse
> when the band is closed.  In those areas, they work great
> as receiving antennas.  Just as good as a dipole.
> 
>


What sort of distances are we talking about here (where the ground wave 
hpol dies out).. 10s of meters, 100s of meters, kms?

I would assume that "at the source" the noise is essentially randomly 
polarized.