[Antennas] My B&W Folded Dipole

[Mike, K8LH]

My 2 cents worth please Gentlemen???

I've been using a B&W Folded Dipole for four years now as my main (only)
antenna and I agree with the theory and most comments that the B&W
Folded Dipole is NOT a "great" antenna...
 
I purchased the B&W because it would on my city-size lot, would give me
access to all of the HF bands, would provide a 2:1 or better SWR across
the entire HF spectrum without a tuner, and had a rating of 1,000 watts
ICAS which allowed for operation with a small 500-600 watt amplifer,
also without a tuner...

I've learned these last several years that many other wire antennas, or
ladder-line fed wire antennas, along with a tuner, are much better
performing antennas...

I think the B&W deserves its place as a simple and reasonably
inexpensive all-band no-tune "compromise" antenna system though...  Yes,
you lose several db on receive and transmit because of the "matching
network" (terminator)...  Yes, its performance drops off dramatically on
80m and below...  But while the antenna doesn't work as well as many
other designs, it DOES work...  Here's a few of the things I've done
with my B&W along with an FT-847 transceiver and SB-201 amplifier;

5BWAS (8 months), WAS-CW, WAS-SSB, WAS-QRP, WAS-30, WAS-17...  Now
working on WAS-RTTY (still need VT and NV) and WAS-12...

308 DXCC entities worked (these last 39 months) with 302 "firm"... 
DXCC-CW, DXCC-SSB, and working on DXCC-RTTY...  Mixed band totals are;
61 on 80m (yuch), 210 on 40m, 185 on 30m, 238 on 20m, 241 on 17m, 245 on
15m, 179 on 12m, and 234 on 10m (no I'm not retired, I work full-time,
hi)...

WAZ-CW (6 months), WAZ-SSB, WAZ-15...

All-in-all, I think the B&W was a good investment and a good "match" for
my needs as a first antenna...  But I'm also looking forward to getting
the 48 foot Rohn HDBX-48 tower up in the air next month with the
Lightning Bolt 2-element 5-band Quad on top...  I've been saving my
pennies for four years now so I'm pretty "geeked"...  Please wish me
luck Gentlemen...