Richard
I agree in that you need to chose either focusing on F/B or forward gain, just
like the YAGI. I guess from a practical point of view how is this accomplished?
I am not quite sure how far the field strength reading need to be to be of
value. I guess a little trial and error is in order here.

As you noted computers will get you in the ballpark but the real proof is in
actual testing which takes into account other variables.

I am a little surprised that there is not quite a bit of literature on this, or
at least not what I have found (tuning parasitics). Maybe some reading up on
the YAGI may help shed some light

As an aside I have worked on arrangements that do not employ radials such as
the inverted half square for 20 and 40m. This is where you have two 1/4wl
verticals elevated about 0.05wl and spaced about 1/2wl and the phasing line is
at the bottom vs the top. This enables you to have a rotatable half square and
get about 2 S-unit rejection off the ends (just like the calculations). The
nice thing is portability and not radial dependent. I got off the subject.

I wil try the strength meter at varying distances to see if it makes a
difference.

Thanks---Alan KB7MBI