I recently realised that I may have been mistaken to assume that a broken antenna would still be attached at the front connection point, at least initially. The problem with this scenario is explaining how the aft end magically hooks on something on the field and is yanked off to create the "puffs" seen during the takeoff film. Is this what others assumed happened? What do you think the loose end hooked on? Most airfields are preferred to be free of obstructions and objects that might hook airplane parts, and a loose, floppy antenna, possibly with a broken section of mast still attached, will not "hook" on the ground by itself. Note that I do a lot of vehicle tests that include dragging cables along the ground, and I've never seen a cable "hook" on bare ground, even when dragging failed ground anchors, tent pins, instrumentation boxes, etc. However, there is a different scenario that makes hypothetical sense to me, so I'll throw it out here:
Let's say that during the taxi at Lae, the aft mast contacted the ground, bending it back, tensioning the antenna wire enough to cause it to fail at the forward end. The loose section of cable was then dragged along the ground, still connected to the bent aft mast, and possibly to a bent intermediate mast. When the tailwheel rolled over the loose end of the antenna, the remaining connection point abruptly failed. I've seen a similar action take place when a vehicle wheel rolls over a moving cable - the cable abruptly acquires the velocity of the ground, rather than the velocity of the vehicle (caveat: I test vehicle barriers for a living, not aircraft antennas).
But there's a problem - this scenario would have to occur while the tail wheel was still firmly on the ground, not during the takeoff run when the tail is in the air. If so, then the puffs are not from the antenna getting yanked off - it was already gone earlier in the taxi or takeoff.
The simple explaination for the puff(s) is the plane passing over the hypothesized dirt road.
OK, let the flames begin.