OK, you want-real world experience. I've used the following for a little over a year, mostly on 20 meters and up but at times on 40 meters.
EARC End Fed 6 - 40 meter HF Ham Antenna | eBay
It's 9 feet off the ground, invisible from the street, from a corner of the house to a friendly palm tree. I operate mostly digital.. PSK, JT-65HF, Feld Hell, Olivia, Contestia, even RTTY at times. Power out about 35 watts, less on JT.
Casual DX, hunt and pounce, almost 100 countries and entities. QSOs? Over a couple of thousand I'd guess. My QTH is is Florida and I've worked New Zealand, Sakahlin Island, Greenland, all of Europe, South Africa, and WAS a while back (Alaska was pretty easy, Nevada was wicked hard, never did figger out why NV was so hard).
My guess is that you'd be well served by running it either paralell to the ground (as I have it rigged) or as a sloper to one of those trees?
For 40 bucks and change it's a heck of a deal.
Get it up and get on the air, easy as that. GL and 73...
