Right!

the big improvement in broadbanding seems to be going
from 1 to 2-3 wires.
Rather, from 1 to a lot of wires OR to 2 or 3 THICK self supporting
masts.

More wires, smoother passband. Less wires, more mismatches.
I have checked a couple of things:

1) Land based cage monopoles. Typically:
- height: .24 lambda at the lowest frequency
- max diameter: .18 lambda at almost half height
- up to 24 / 36 wires
- ground plane with at least 24 wires
- bandwidth easily 7:1

2) Pix of dipoles spotted atop Russian embassies, eyeballed based on
height of balcony railings
- 6 conductors
- spacers approx. 1 m diameter, every 3 m
- poles typically 10-12 m each

If you
No free lunches at the Maxwell Cafe.
Whence the success of the Maxwell House brand.

http://www.eznec.com/
No free lunch there either. The demo only does 20 elements. If I did
an 8-wire cage in decent sized diameter stainless steel rope, it would
set me back in the 100s at my local prices, so I might as well buy the
SW and learn to use it.

The copperclad steel MIG continuous welding wire I was testing has
rusted in ONE NIGHT under the fall rain. I'll look for a source of
stainless welding wire. I have a single wire sloper up for the last 4
years and it looks absolutely new - courtesy of the head of mechanical
maintenance at a cement factory I did consulting at.