7One should not think that the outer edges of the shaded radiation patterns represents some “hard” boundary beyond which no radiation is emitted (or detected). In reality, the radiation patterns extend out to infinity (assuming otherwise empty space surrounding the antenna). Instead, the size of each shaded area simply represents how effective the antenna is in that direction compared to other directions. In the case of the vertical whip and dipole antennas, for instance, the radiation patterns show us that these antennas have zero effectiveness along the vertical (Y ) axis centerline. To express this in anthropomorphic terms, these antenna designs are “deaf and mute” in those directions where the radiation pattern is sketched having zero radius from the antenna center.