Yea.. But would like to understand the differences from an actual "test" to see how much better/worse one is over the over. Just to see..
I've got a homebrew G5RV style antenna ready to go up, it's a 94' fed with 41' of 450 ohm ladder line though a 1:1 balum. It's suppose to be resonate on 40, 20, 17, 12 and 10 meters without a tuner and do the 80 meter band with a tuner since it's suppose to run a SWR of 7.6:1.
Should work good for a semi-permament antenna, but it's too long and bulky for my idea of field operating. That and a big part of my idea of 'field' operating includes NVIS mode and from what I gleam from various sources and my own experience, NVIS works best on 40 and 80 meter bands.
My favorite NVIS attennas are the Radio Wavz end fed, half waves. They are single band, full half wave wire antenna's that require no ground plane, just string them acording to how you want to operate, they go up high or inverted 'V' like a dipole or low sloped for NVIS. Pure field simplicity.
This weekend I was running portable on 40 meter and was experimenting with a semi-NVIS set up on a state park beach on the central CA coast. I stung the antenna from a scraggly tree on the access cliff face down to some drift wood on the beach, that left the antenna oriented east/west. I made multipal contacts north/south from one end of CA to the other, some as close as 50 miles. Probagation east/west not so much, I jumped into a net with the controler in Carson City, NV and he said I was 'cutting out' so an operator about 75 miles from my location relayed.
I suppose a guy coulds set up a G5RV as a low sloper, NVIS style and with a tuner transmit on the 80 meter band and depending on the style of G5RV not need a tuner for the 40 meter band. It just seems like a hard way to get to the same place.
There's another option a buddy and I or scheaming on that is based on the military AS-2259 NVIS field antenna. Here's a link to a homebrew version.
http://home.centurytel.net/w9wis/NVIS1.html It seems as if this homebrew version can be cut to get 40 and 80 meters without a tuner after some experimenting with wire legnths. Not sure why the original builder went the way he did with the tuning. It's not as portable as a end fed half wave but it's would be useful when there's some form of load bearing gear being used in a semi-permanent set-up. Using PVC conduant poles and simple parts it won't cost too awful much to experiment with. I also want to try it without the pole, hanging the center connector from an overhead line or branch, since the poles are the heavy part.
Anywho just a few random NVIS thoughts.