Hey MrS, I've heard that stuff about placing a coil up near a top hat also, but in my personal experience with a similar antenna, I found the idea worked excellent, for both local and DX. Signal Engineering use to make two models they called their Golden Rod 40 and 50. My dad has both, and they work pretty good considering they are short.
Just considering the stories we hear about how a full 1/4 wave working hands down better than a shortened radiator with a top hat like the AstroPlane, I have one of the New Top Ones (NTO) and it may be working better than my old Top One knockoff of the Avanti original.
I have it mounted on my P/U pole with 4' feet of the bottom below the top of the 33'8" mast it's mounted on. My Gain Master is mounted on top of another similar 33'8" mast. This setup places the NTO 4' lower at the bottom than the GM, and the tip of the GM is about 14' feet higher than the top of the NTO, so there is a well defined disadvantage for the NTO, yet it still at times shows me a better signal to certain stations around Houston. That don't even seem possible, but I have it on video. So, I wouldn't object to much to that idea and design nor be quite so categorical...unless I've actually tested or compared it to my others, even one that is said to defy the laws of physics or theory.
Do you have a link or personal experience in the Real World or modeling that supports your claim? I know this question will get Homer's attention as Sergeant at Arms over the forum community.
I have a Starduster modeled with a 50% top hat, not one of those puny little top hats like the I-10k GP uses to make the tip look bigger in case of lightning. I'll look the SD'r model up and send you a copy of the file if you like. I think I recall it performs on paper pretty well compared to the full size model. Of course you could say that one doesn't have a coil I suppose.
I would like to try the Merlin, but I won't pay the price...just to test that one for sure.
