Jerry Martes wrote:
"I`d sure like to get some "real life" data."

Personal experience testimonials are often unreliable. Modeling data are
often more complete, skillfully designed, well executed, and less
colored by the operator`s opinion, by the right modeler.

One highly educated, experienced, and competent source is L.B. Cebik,
W4RNL. The plain folded dipole is just one of the many antenna types he
has modeled and enriched his web pages with. He compares it with the
common open-circuit single wire dipole in his analysis.

Just search on "folded dipole". Cebik`s web pages will appear near the
top of your list of options. Click on the most likely of your options
and you are there.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI