Grounding Systems - NOT Radial Related

That shows how low efficiency must be on a 3m antenna, if increasing the height by 36 inches at Carl's antenna increases range by 30 percent.

In the VHF region and higher, there are antenna designs that flatten out the dipole's donut shaped radiant pattern into a flatter pancake. It's still an omnidirectional pattern, with more signal pushed out to the horizon, using a collinear antenna.

I wish a gain antenna like that could be made for mediumwave and stay within 3 meters, it would be an amazing feat.

That ground rod coupling system seems interestiing, and with solid steel it would be very heavy.