Can an Antenna Be Cut Into Pieces (Without Affecting Its Radiation)?

When the conductors of an antenna have length greater than λ/4, where λ is the broadcast wavelength, the current distribution may have nodes where the current vanishes. If so, it would seem that the conductors could be cut at these nodes, creating small gaps, without any effect on the radiation of the antenna. The possibility of nodes in the current distribution of an antenna is suggested by the familiar approximation of Pocklington [1] that the current distribution in a thin, perfectly conducting wire of an antenna is sinusoidal in space and time. A typical example of this prescription is that the current distribution along a center-fed antenna of length L has the form I(s, t) = I0 sin[k(L/2− |s|)] cosωt, (1)