Tim Shoppa wrote:
But if you don't really need that 50 feet of feedline then why keep
it? Straightest shot to the antenna will always be superior unless you
want that extra 50 feet for impedance transformation or something
else.

100 feet of ladder-line with an 80m dipole is easy to understand.
The dipole is 1/2WL. The ladder-line is ~1/2WL. The low 80m
feedpoint impedance tends to be reproduced at the shack end
thus making for an easy match.

However, 50 feet of ladder-line is ~1/4WL. The low 80m feedpoint
impedance tends to be transformed to ~4k ohms. Most built-in
autotuners will not handle such impedances.

100 feet of ladder-line is also a good length for multiband
operation of an 80m dipole as can be seen from this chart:

http://www.w5dxp.com/pnts130.gif

50 feet of ladder-line seems to be a good length for HF amateur
frequencies above 10 MHz - not so good for 80m and 40m.
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com