Guys I ran a 100+ watt station for some time on and off in the 90s in the Detroit area. Sometimes no more than a watt, other times the full 100+ depending on my mood. At times I would broadcast straight for 12 hours but never longer. Usually weekends only. I was using a J-Pole at 45' but I've since giving that up many years ago and was lucky never having been popped by Uncle Charlie. Several FM pirates in and around Detroit were not so lucky back then. My thought regarding FM operation with any serious equipment is this. It's not a matter of "if", but "when" they catch up with you. Food for thought. I miss it but I'm just not in a mood to make it easy for them.
Actually Kage a vertical has a low angle radiation pattern. Look at your long-haul 160 and 80 DXers. They use verticals (loading the towers against ground and such). These are the guys that get the record setters more than not. Being a dipole cannot be raised high enough in most circumstances to prevent it from becoming a cloud burner (great for short-haul 500-800 miles). Of course I'm not talking about verticals with lengths no more than 1/8 or even 1/16 the proper wavelength in many cases. I consider verticals of this type no more than resistors raised in the air
But for receive it's obviously another story with verticals. Yes they generally receive from all directions but so do dipoles mounted only a fraction above ground against their wavelength. Yes they tend to receive more man-made noise sources. But for someone in a low noise environment this may not be an issue.
I live on a small lot and generally use my Pixel active loop more than the dipole. I can manage about a 140' dipole length at best though currently I'm using a 100'. I'm just north of Detroit so the noise levels can be high at times and this is where the loop really saves the day in many cases. I'm now looking at installing an active whip and phasing it against my loop for a "steerable" null. Several have done this with good success so that may be in my future for even more improvement.
Hey gents. Keep an ear to 1710/KHz also. There has been plenty of recent activity as of the last month. One pirate to note who has been broadcasting for years now is Celestial Radio out of NYC (ethnic music and religion), and a legal TIS out of NJ. Personally I ignore these two stations and sometimes get a little ticked that they crowd the MW Pirate Clear Channel frequency of 1710 :-)