Probably the simplest method of 'hearing' more on 440 or 2 meters is by raising your antenna higher. Depending on an antenna's environment, a few feet in extra height can certainly make a difference. You have to moderate that with what's practical though, sometimes it's just not very practical to get an antenna higher.
VHF/UHF signals don't bend all that much, they are a 'line of sight' sort of thingy. You can see further by getting higher (on a ladder!
) right? Curvature of the earth etc. HF behaves more like your ears, sort of. You can hear around corners when you can't see around corners.
A 1/4 wave antenna has no gain, it has a slight 'negative' gain. A 1/2 wave antenna also has no gain, but it's the standard other antennas are compared to. But, that 1/2 wave antenna does have more 'gain' is compared to a 1/4 wave. A 5/8 wave antenna does have some slight gain when compared to a 1/2 wave. From there, because of how tghe radiation pattern of an antenna is 'shaped', where/how the signal is sent, the typical 'longer' antennas seldom put that signal where you intend (or where you want to get it from).
So, the typical way of getting more gain is either by making the antenna directional, as in a beam, or by 'stacking' elements on top of each other. When you do that stacking it's called a vertical array. It starts getting electrically complicated because you have to phase those 'elements' to get the signal to each of them at the same time to produce the desired radiation pattern. (It also starts getting expensive because of the mechanical aspects of building such a thingy.)
I doubt if I've said anything here that you haven't heard before, and I don't have the measurements for any particular antenna to give you. Making a vertical array a multi-band antenna is certainly possible but it's always a compromise. If that compromise is better than what you have now, then it's a benefit, right? Then all you have to do is not pay any attention to your wallet screaming! (That's the real trick!)
Good luck.
- 'Doc
