There is a thread in this area, lower down, which talks about NVIS antennas. It might be worthwhile to read first, as background. Take the below FWIW, from a newbie.
There may be a gap in communications capability between short-range VHF even if it's helped out by repeaters which may or may not be in service... and traditional long range HF. What fills the mileage gap, and the service gap between you and your more local friends, are antennas built to send a lower frequency signal (80m, 60m, and 40m) at a higher angle to the ionesphere than most HF antennas do. This sort of radiation, is called Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS). Signals from antennas constructed for this strategy are designed to depart from 45 to 90 degrees, and come back down in a comparatively small area. This closer area to you, is the one not served well by what you've been told as to how to put up your "best" antenna.
The other thread refers to the military antenna called the AS-2259. The other thread has a link to a dual band inverted dipole that propagates on some off-band frequencies, don't know why. Some of the hardware ideas from that link, are useful. The advice on wire cutting is not real useful, if you choose to continue to be broadcasting on amateur frequencies.
Last week, RazorCityDen and I built a shorter-range HF antenna in my front yard, tested it for SWR, talked on it some, then took it down. Our opinion, is that it will do just fine for regional work. Might have to tweak down the power some, to make it more local.
The basic design, is a tri-band inverted dipole for 80m, 60m, and 40m. Mast height is 15', done with 1.5" PVC, each pipe got cut in order to make it a three-piece mast for easier stowage. Feedline got run from an elongated entrance hole just above ground level, inside and up the PVC, to the top of the mast. Dipole head was two-terminal RadioWavz with a 1:1 voltage balun. It was a very loose fit inside the top of the PVC conduit. A person could have cut a long hole in towards the top of the mast in order to grab some RG-8 out of it and make a choke, we didn't. This last could be done as a temporary choke thing with each rising of the mast, it's an option.
Basic orientation of the antenna, was for the 80m and 40m to be on the same axis and on top of each other as the dipoles ran. 60m provided guying support, perpendicular to the other's axis.
The end of each wire, was supported and kept 2' off the ground, by a 3/4" x 2' PVC stabilizer. Each wire was set up this way: a common terminal to the head; strain relief; the antenna wire; an insulator; 550 cord to insulator; the stabilizer, drilled out and floating on the 550 cord; and a tent peg on an adjustable tautline hitch on the 550 cord. Each leg of wire has its own one dollar Home Depot ladder-type cord reel, for extension and retrieval. Do the above, six times, with the appropriately cut lengths, if you are making it for three bands. Do it four times, if you're looking for 80m and 40m only..
Wires were cut for low-down on the voice bands, with an extra six inches per wire for making strain relief at the head, and for the wrap at the insulator. They were plenty long, as the SWR meter showed.
Per the SWR meter, we ended up shortening the 80m dipole by 32" total in two trials; the 60m was fine; and the 40m got shortened 6" or so. No cutting was done on the shortening, just a wrap. No antenna tuner was used.
RCD got into a net on 40m, got an initial full copy but low ss with caveat from the guy running the net. He stayed on it and got a later 57 from too far of a distance, 600m. There was not opportunity to talk to folks closer, plus the antenna was blocking my driveway, so we took it down. Individual wire reels are an important thing for this portable antenna. It gets reeled in from the head side, all goes on the reel, including the PVC stay, the 550 cord, and the tent peg.
There was another thing not tested: the idea that an antenna cut for 40m will work for 15m. Maybe, with this short mast, maybe not. The mast height was done with the intention of local/regional on lower bands day and night. Fifteen meters during the daytime with this antenna, would be a bonus, but it would not be ...just... local/regional.
If a person was going to put up this tri-bander by himself, there's another source which recommends driving a steel T fencing stake as initial stabilizer for the mast... this would be a fine idea, otherwise it's a two-man proposition. For final tweak, it would be good to have a 1' x 5/16" rebar for each 2' stabilizer. Tension the wire, locate the stabilizer, then drive the rebar halfway in and slip the base of the PVC over it.
This project was a tri-bander. Sixty meter capability is not a real strong reason for me to make more complexity. It could have been a dual-bander, with the 40m leg perpendicular to the 80m as its guy support. Whichever way it is built, this local/regional antenna has a good-sized footprint: on the long leg, call it 120 or so feet. Best have some clear ground for the setting up of it.
This was a fairly quick project to put up. A person can decide beforehand how it's going to be done: whether with camo net poles and to use its' spreader hub to locate the terminals and their strain relief; whether to use a sacrificed spreader arm to carve and drill from it a guy plate for the mast joints;... and etc. Or whether to use a production dipole head which proved to be a slip fit inside the top of the mast.
Point here of posting this for the Prepared Ham, is to illustrate the easiness of it for two people working together to make a copy of a .mil antenna used for HF local/regional work. Possibly, just to test out the board some. The board has the right name and all, but seems to me to be more focused on testing for Extra, than for running radios in other-than-fine conditions.