It's quite easy: your best bet is the maximum length of wire you can keep
in your backyard AND as high up in the air as you can afford (trees,
towers, chimneys etc.)

Hmmmmm, my back yard is ten acres. :-)

Until wind toppled the tree at one end, my "dipole" went 275 feet SW
and 250 feet NE of the "center" feed point. Height was about 45 feet.

Someone once commented that the reason I "got out" so well was that,
by the time the RF reached the end of my antenna, it was already a
significant part of the distance toward its destination!-)

--Myron.
--
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
PhD EE (retired). "Barbershop" tenor. CDL(PTXS). W0PBV. (785) 539-4448
NRA Life Member and Certified Instructor (Home Firearm Safety, Rifle, Pistol)