If the insulation will stand it, your speaker wire will handle 100 watts. I
have known many apartment dwellers who ran 100 watts into #26 or #28 wire
with no problem, at least as far as the wire was concerned.

The magic of either the 88 or 44 foot center fed arrangement is that it has
the same dipole type broadside radiation pattern on each band that it
covers. This is true through 20 meters for the 88 foot length, and from 40
meters through 10 for the 44 foot model.

You can force a half wave center fed to load at many harmonic frequencies,
but, you will get a different radiation pattern and efficiency on each band.
For most casual work, that pattern change may not be a big deal. And, in a
true emergency, the idea is to get as much signal on the air as quickly as
possible.

Try the 80 meter half wave and see how it works. You can always break it up
with insolates and shorting jumpers at the appropriate points for each
desired higher band if the tuner won't handle it as is.

Then, all you have to do is lower the antenna, remove or add the appropriate
jumpers, and you're in business on the new band.

More information about the 88 and 44 foot center feds can be found at
http://www.cebik.com. Select the "Tales and Technicals" link, and then the
link called
"What if I could only have one antenna?" This is for the 44 foot model. I
think the 88 foot model is addressed there also as well as in "A Universal
Back-up Antenna for 80, 40, and 20 Meters."

This site has volumes of information about almost any type of antenna you
can think of.


Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs