"gareth" wrote in news:m2nfsl$c6b$1@dont-
email.me:

net no-current situation

The end is never connected, so there is NO current there. Not ever, at any
instant, never mind 'net'. There can be an alternating electrical charge,
hence a voltage, but I'll stop there because I'm not knowlegeable enough
about AC electricity to add much. I'm just pointing out that AC doesn't
automagically create a current through any open contact. The ONLY way a
current can flow through the end of that antenna is via contact or arc.

Imagine electrons occupying the wire. They move easily where there is a place
to go. As the charge builds, like charges repel, making it harder to move
electrons into atoms at the wire's end, so less movement, less current. My
description may be flawed now that quantum mechanics describes things
differently (and I didn't try to express it in terms of AC electrical theory
either), but the result is the same, current is not equal in all parts of the
wire, for AC. The only reason we don't think about this in a mains cable is
that the frequency is extremely low compared to its length.