Hello, Hue.
I haven't seen the article you reference, but I do have
decades of experience with electrically short transmit
antennas at MF and LF. 
If I understand correctly,  this person was connecting
a coaxial feedline from his transmitter,
with the center conductor connected to
the top of a base loading coil, the bottom of which
was connected to the coax shield and ground?
There's a lot in this idea to which one could object,
but I will simply suggest one not do this.

QST accepted it for publication, so perhaps the
author was very specific in the dimensions of
his antenna and ground system, so that the
antenna sans loading coil was accepting power
and its height/top capacitance/ground conductance
gave some useable radiation resistance.
It would be interesting to bring a calibrate field
strength receiver and look at the signal as he
proposes and with the "loading coil" (more an
RF choke in this configuration) removed and
the coax just feeding the antenna.

Regards,

Dave S.

The only thing I have read about LF antennas in the last few years that really piqued my interest was an article in QST, where the writer found that

connecting the load coil right to the ground system, and feeding the antenna between this top of the load coil and the antenna. Instead of the traditional

connection where the coax goes to ground and the bottom of the load coil. The article reported this resulted in a noteworthy increase in radiated signal.

---

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com