Yep Homer, LC is a cool kind of guy and kept guys on their toes with some good, sensible questions and ideas.
Even though I can't find a suitable feed point match on the model's hub anywhere, the simple answer to LC's question above is so obvious to me...the 1/2 wave is center fed.
If I put the feed point on wire #3, where it appears to be on the antenna right above down radial #4, the match looks OK, but the model won't work too good or maybe even not at all, I just don't remember. My model works fine with the source (the feed point) located on the hub end of wire #4 only and is indicated by a small red circle. To my understanding the real antenna's feed point and the top of wire #4 is not even touching the antenna in an electrical sort of way, it is isolated at that point on a maximum current node, and only by connecting the hoop at the bottom does the connection at #4 and #5 come into electrical contact with the antenna at all.
Hope that is not confusing, but I was thinking guys might be interested in how that part worked. The whole antenna shows continuity at every point, and I think guys would wonder how it can be directly fed, I know I did the first time I got my hands on that one.
Again, there's a great quote from the patent on such matters, on column 4, lines 26-29, and here we might find the distinction that hides the mystique.
