So, I don't need to subtract the velocity adjusted length of the PCB trace from the velocity adjusted 1/2 wavelength of coax in order to get the proper length of coax? This is all foreign territory to me, but I had started to imagine maybe they acted together as a single antenna. The layman's analogy I was working from to try to understand this was: if the entire dipole antenna were built on a PCB, but you constructed a Faraday cage around the middle of it (which would represent the coax part), such that the parts that stick out of the Faraday cage are equal in length to the traces on the PCB you designed. i.e. from a resonance standpoint, it's as though you built a complete dipole antenna on the PCB, but you're only allowing the protruding ends to be stimulated by the RF in the environment. Whereas what you're constructing would be that, except the Faraday cage engulfs the entire imaginary 1/2 wavelength PCB antenna (with length adjusted for the velocity of the PCB medium)--which obviously wouldn't work at all as an antenna--so then the length of the PCB antenna traces are extended so as to protrude the all-engulfing Faraday cage by the length of the antenna traces you have on the actual PCB. However, from a resonance point of view, doesn't that make each leg of the antenna too long? i.e. don't you want both the parts of the trace (the part inside the Faraday cage and the part extending beyond it) to sum to the velocity adjusted 1/2 wavelength?
I should probably just shut-up and follow the directions, but it seemed like a fair analogy, so I'm just wondering if it has any merit to it, or if I'm (more likely) completely misunderstanding the theory that's driving the design.