Great minds think alike, as shown by the April 1973 issue of Popular Electronics.  I wrote an article for the June 2010 issue of QST entitled, “A Fan Dipole for 80 through 6 Meters.”  It was really nothing new, and I cited earlier versions dating back to the 1930s.  But apparently QST hadn’t published one for a while, so they included my version.

The idea is simple–one piece of feedline feeds antennas for multiple bands, so that you can instantly switch from one to the other.  But the 1973 magazine includes a new twist in the article by RIchard Yommus, W2DMK (or maybe the name is Richard Yeomans, since that name goes with the license).  While the antenna covers 80 through 10 meters, the longest antenna elements are for 40 meters.  The added trick is using 90-1/2 feet of RG-59 coax.  Apparently, the coax radiates on 80 meters, along with the rest of the antenna, on 80 meters, thus providing a good SWR on that band.  The author notes that the coax should be kept as straight as possible, and as much as possible should be outside and away from metallic objects.

I haven’t tried this particular antenna, but I wouldn’t be surprised that it works well on 80 meters.  My antenna works surprisingly well on 160 meters.  When I use it on that band, I unscrew the outer connector of the coax, so that the whole antenna, coax and wires in the air, constitute a long wire.  I suspect that the antenna when used this way causes the house wiring to do much of the job of radiating RF, but it does seem to get out pretty well on 160.