"Bert Craig" wrote in message .net...
Does an 88 ft. doublet have any advantage over a conventional 67 ft.
doublet?

It depends! One big consideration is "on which band"?

On 80 meters, the 88 footer will do a better job than the 67 footer
because the feedpoint Z is higher and less reactive. If you can get to
132 feet, things get really good on 80 - but that's a lot of space to
find.

The 88 footer will theoretically have some gain broadside to the wire
on 40 through 20 meters because it's longer than a half wave but
shorter than a 1.28 wave (think of two 5/8 wave verticals back to
back..) Above 20 you theoretically get a cloverleaf pattern.

W4RNL explains it better than I can but you already know that...

In either case, feedline would be approx. 50 ft. of 450 Ohm ladder
line to a 4:1 current balun, then a short length of coax into the shack.

That's the rub - feeding the beast.

Model the thing with Reg Edwards' DIPOLE3 freeware and see what you
can expect on the various bands.

My usual band of choice is 40, but I'd like to become more active on 20 and
30.

If you can get the feed figured out, it might be worth doing. Be aware
that the gain isn't more than a few dB, and an inefficient feed system
can eat a lot of it up.

Ideally, you'd eliminate the balun and run straight to a balanced
tuner. All depends on your house/shack situation. Some family members
take a dim view of new holes in new walls - can't understand why...

73 de Jim, N2EY