More is not always better. As far as performance goes, some have suggested
that your antenna pattern can have more lobes (a bad thing) if you went with
the 100' of wire vs. the 88'. Having a very lobey pattern makes it hard to
determine where your signal is actually going, whereas having less lobes
usually means your signal will radiate at 90 degree angles to the doublet
antenna.

See an article describing this at:
http://www.cebik.com/aledz.html

In the article, the author thinks 44' is the optimal length for a 40-10M
antenna and 88' is the optimal length for an 80-20M antenna, assuming you
want to maintain an accurate radiation pattern.

73,
Dan

"Jim Miller" wrote in message
...
I'm putting up a centerfed doublet fed by ladderline and an antenna tuner
in
the backyard and have two trees to support it which are about 112ft apart.

I could put up an 88 foot doublet between them easily. However would it be
better to put up a full 100 footer (allowing for endline support) since I
have to tune it anyway or is 88 foot a better choice?

It will be used for hambands as well as swl.

tnx
jtm