I'm curious, did the engineer say anything about the presence of common mode currents on the cone directly? Also, was anything mentioned about the action that confines the RF field of the lower 1/4 wavelength section of the vertical element inside the cone, or was it merely stated that it exists?
When it comes to your second paragraph above, near the end, weather or not those currents are present isn't what I am exploring at the moment, I am definitely sure they are there. What I'm trying to figure out specifically is the fields those currents are generating, and what those fields are doing, and potentially how they are interacting not only with each other, but also the field from the current on the central vertical element. Maybe I'm over thinking this, but I have the impression that there is more going on than what the currents themselves are telling us.
Essentially they made a coax out of various wires... Neat. At much lower frequencies that we typically worry about such a system would have the loss characteristics of ladder line as the dielectric would be air. That in conjunction with the lower loss characteristics of the lower frequencies in general, I bet you could get several hundred miles with only marginal losses... My only concern with the comparison between that and the Vector basket is the outer wiring is there to merely contain the field, it is not intended to be an active radiating component like the basket on the Vector acts.
When I get some time I am going to see if I can put down what I think I am seeing on paper (or, well, my computer anyway) in an understandable way. I'm busy the next few days so it may be a while. Its frustrating for me to have this thought in my head and not be able to describe it...
The DB
