A decent ant analyser can be of great help in understanding reactances and so on, if you want one get one! They're not just useful for analysing ants, they make for a decent sig gen and can be used to perform other tests as well.
Also, some of the modeling programs may be of help, as well as looking over other people's work to make sure you're not reinventing the wheel or creating losses inadvertently that others have already overcome.