Without that antenna being adjustable in some way, and at HF frequencies, yes. A lot of that deals with a radio wanting to see something close to a 50 ohm impedance. There are several ways of making that radio 'think' it sees 50 ohms when it really doesn't, it's seeing some other value of resistance plus some value of reactance which when combined seems like 50 ohms. That usually means that the radio is happy, which is good. The bad part about that is that only the resistive part of that equation does any radiating. Reactance does not radiate. So, while the SWR may read 1:1, if there's any reactance present there is also some loss of efficiency, it just doesn't radiate as well as it could. (Also why 'smaller' antennas don't work as well as the 'full sized' ones do. And why you don't use a 'wound' resistor in a dummy load...varying reactances.) That's for any 'size' antenna, not just 5/8w, 1/2w, or whatever.
For a single band of about 1 or 1.5 Mhz, the bandwidth can be sort of 'stretched' to cover it. Not real well, but it'll 'work'. When you get to something like 2 Mhz bandwidth, that 'not well' really goes up and that 'works' thingy takes a real beating.
Just depends on how you do the 'measuring' and what with. An SWR meter is one of the poorest methods of measuring how well an antenna 'works'/radiates. The other biggy is expecting more than is practical.
- 'Doc
Don't have un-'realistic' ideas. Sorry, I don't have much resistance for puns, they can sure be an impedance to understanding, huh?