Consider the Wilson is a loaded shortened 1/4 wave, the whip being a little over 5', the coil then has to make up for the missing 4' and they are holding it to the whip a few inches above the coil so imagine a 9' whip with a 2-pill amp driving into it (Do we even know how much power they were running? 350HD? 667?) and you are holding a 40w bulb and what looks like my 8w aquarium bulb, 4' up the whip, you should see light.
Like I stated, with enough power you might generate a high enough RF field to light it just about anywhere, but at the bottom of a 102" SS whip you won't get it to light if you use about the same power bulb and transmitter, then you'll only see it light well above the center because the current is at the bottom, the voltage at the top.
In a 1/2 wave it's a mirror image of the 102" whip - beneath it.
High current in the middle, high voltage at the top & bottom.
You won't even get an 8w bulb to light even though you run 50w, if you hold it to the middle of an Antron99 or Proton, but drop the power to around 10w and it will light near the top, and near the bottom especially if you have a choke wrapped right below it in the coax.
