The statement that the half of a horizontal dipole's radiation is vertically polarized is misleading and needs qualification. There is a vertically polarized component off the ends of the dipole but it is only of consequence at takeoff angles approaching 90 degrees, in other words straight overhead. I would argue that these takeoff angles are of little interest for long distance propagation.
At takeoff angles lower than 60 degrees or so, the total radiation pattern of a dipole at any reasonable height becomes dominated by the horizontally polarized component that is broadside to the dipole. The lower the angle or the higher the dipole, the more insignificant the vertical component becomes. This is all verifiable in EZNEC. If this were not true, you would not see the well-defined radiation patterns that are produced by HF Yagi's at higher frequencies were the radiation is horizontally polarized for virtually all signals of interest. 73, John W1FV -----Original Message----- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of n...@n4is.com Sent: Monday, November 26, 2018 11:06 AM To: 'Roger Kennedy'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Vertical antennas aren't always best for DX Roger Every dipole or inverted V irradiate 50% of the power horizontal polarized broadside with the wire and 50% of the power vertical polarized along the wire. After the first refraction it does not matter. This is an electro-magnetic wave law. You can check that on EZENEC, it is not a anecdote. The advantage over vertical 1/4 wave antenna is efficiency. The vertical efficiency depends on the ground plane resistance, it is common to see invert L with only 50 % irradiated power, the other 50% is dissipated on the ground. "In Theory, we know everything, but nothing works" "In Practice, everything works, but we don't know why" We never will fully understand the 160m band. 73's JC N4IS _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector