This is not intended to demean you guy's opinions, but I ask that you just consider some other facts...that really should be considered too.
Millions of Cbr's have used the A99 antenna that you suggest is not optimal, and they do it without a seeming hitch. Hundreds more users have reported that when they add radial GPK to these same antennas...they can tell no difference. This has been my experience in my testing the idea as well.
If you have tested the idea and seen different results, then we just disagree on what we've observed. I'm not saying you guys are dead wrong. I too have heard such reports that adding a GPK, and a few other ideas can make the difference between daylight and dark...as to performance for this EFHW antenna.
When we read technical reports on antennas, we often read where someone has tested and determined that this or that was true, and if we do certain recommended things...it will fix some problem that exists, just as you have suggest above. However, when others disagree...you don't even consider the idea, you just tend to double down.
Then later on, as our experiences and understanding grows, we might find out that the differences described to us earlier were small and almost meaningless, in the operational sense. Additionally we have to consider that the real differences we might experience can only be realized while using our radios, and a few other tools available to most CB'r.
In the end it is obvious to me that most of this technical writing available to us on the Internet, even if it is true to the dot and tittle, is highly technical and the errors, issues, or differences to be noted are very often minimal at best. In other words, things tend to get all blown out of proportion in reading sometimes.
In this regard, I tend to see minor differences in my real world experiences in a lot of claims and assumptions with two-way radio. However, I hear you guys when you claim this same difference might be significant for you at your location. We also have to consider what you're saying in light of what we hear happened almost every day for years when guys all over the world of CB were buying and installing these same type...less than optimal antennas over and over again. The point is they worked, and in most cases they likely were considered to work well.
I close with a real-life personal experience that might help set the scene for much of my thinking on the subject. I remember when I was in the first grade or so...my school house looked really big through the eyes of a child. But, when I grew up and went back to visit my old school house, the only thing that had really changed, in my mind at least, was the size of the school...it then looked really small. So the moral of this story is, that sometimes when we read we try to find a word or phrase that seems to support our thinking and arguments, and then we tend to ignore everything else on the matter, and for sure if something seems to disagrees with our ideas.
