Tom,

If you want to operate with best results on 75 meters, you should use a full
half wave (approximately 65 feet either side of center.

If you only want 80, 40, and 20 meters with a radiation pattern similar to a
dipole on each band, make the antenna 88 feet, or 44 feet either side of
center. This, of course, requires a tuner.


The 44 foot dipole that your friend told you about works very well from 40
meters up, but requires the use of a tuner. I ran such an antenna made from
a $5 roll of TV ribbon from Wal-Mart from the time I moved into my house in
September until about 2 weeks ago when the 40/80/160 sloper went up the
tower. With the 44 foot dipole, I worked many stations on 40 and 30 meters
with 5 watts.

Regardless of what you use to build the 88 or 44 foot dipoles, they tend to
work best as a flat top, and will be tricky to tune on some frequencies.

Be sure to add a few inches to each leg for the end insulators. Try to make
the length between the center and the inside end of the end insulator be 22
or 44 feet, etc.

Happy hamming!

Mike, K5XU