Doug,
What to do with the excess
length?
Suspending it in the air would work.

Wind it spirally around the tree that acts as a center support?
It would be worth a try.

Here is some info that you might find useful .
(Taken from webpage http://www.bloomington.in.us/~wh2t/zepp.html )

With this type antenna the feed line should be routed away from the antenna
at a right angle for as great a distance as possible. This will prevent
current imbalance in the feed line caused by RF pickup from the antenna. A
right-angle departure of 1/4 wavelength or greater is suggested.

To avoid problems matching any center fed antenna with high impedance open
wire lines, keep the feedline around these lengths.

[The WORST POSSIBLE line lengths are shown in brackets]

40 meter antenna 42-52, 73-83, 112-123 or 145-155 feet
[Avoid 32, 64, 96, 128 ft]

Some slight trimming or adding of feedline may be necessary to accommodate
the higher frequency bands.

Good Luck, Ace - WH2T





"Doug" wrote in message
...

I recently put up a 135 ft dipole with open wire (ladder line) feed.

It worls fine on all bands except for 40 mters. I'm only using around
35 feet of open wire line and the result is that the antenna presents
a very high impedance on 40 meters. I'm losing much of the power in
my tuner.

I need to lengthen the feed line but what to do with the excess
length?

Can I simply tie it up into a bundle, suspending it in air?
Wind it spirally around the tree that acts as a center support?
Any other suggestions?

tnx,

Doug