Vertical antennas

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There are countries where TV signals have vertical polarization, but not in North America. U.S. TV stations are allowed circular or elliptical polarization if they want. But fewer than 10% of U.S. stations do this. Most stations figure the vertical component of circular polarization is wasted power. See Polarization.

If a local TV station uses circular or elliptical polarization then you can probably receive it reliably using either a vertical or a horizontal antenna. A vertical antenna can be a good antenna if you want TV reception in a moving vehicle.

The common vertical antennas are the vertical dipole and the ground plane antenna. Three common versions of the ground plane antenna are:

1. A quarter-wave vertical whip with 3 or 4 horizontal ground plane