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
_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
|