DB, it is very possible I confused you with someone else. If so, then I apologize. I should have looked back to check who it was...and I didn't do that, sorry.
I posted a thread of my own to help me remember who it was that promised to follow up with some testing of an A99 that I had suggested, but I thought I remembered who it was.
I read your reference above, but my book on Reflections does not have page numbers. The items are list as Chapters and Sections within the chapters.
I do find the topic that you noted in my book at Sec 5.5 "Vertical Radiator Over Earth," and it is basically the same text as your reference.
IMO, the reference you provided is referring to Broadcast antennas that are very large and produce gains at or near unity. Thus the ground effects and the control and elimination of ground losses in such cases...becomes far more important than at 27 mhz with far fewer radials.
This is truly a matter of efficiency as you have noted, but if those differences at 27 mhz are very small, then what does efficiency matter in such cases? I see this as comparing apples to oranges.
