Finally got off my lazy butt and pulled all the pieces together to try a loop-on-ground antenna. I've got about 60 feet of insulated solid copper wire haphazardly looped around the backyard and feeding into one of the NooElec 1:9 baluns. Some RG-59 takes that upstairs to the radio and through the BC filter i've posted about before.
This is probably not the best time of day to mess around with it...but initial impressions are favorable. On 20 meters there's at least one S unit less background, and the birdies don't appear as bad compared to the H-800.
Looking forward to this evening and seeing what pops up on 41 meters...if it shows good performance there it might be a keeper, and i'll have to figure out some way to do a more permanent install. That is one where the local wildlife won't run off with my balun and antenna wire.....