Thanks for your help. I have been leanign toward the ground plane but
have been confused at some of the articles I have been reading:

I have a radio shack antenna book that has a saple plan for building a
small wire antenna directly to a pl connector. It says that radials for
a ground plane are bent to determine the antenna's impedance. But I
have seen some that were not bent.

I would like to build something I would not have to fool with once it
is up because I plan to put it high atop my tv antenna tower and I am
not crazy about heights!

The other thing that bothers me about a ground plane is I have not seen
any plans for a dual band version and I would also like to get on 440.
By the way, I have my license.