so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i cant make up my mind. i have decent yard space, maybe 80 feet end to end if i run diagonally, and im trying to decide between throwing up a 40m dipole at maybe 30 feet or just doing a ground mounted vertical with a radial field. the vertical is tempting because i dont have great supports for a dipole and 30 feet honestly isnt that high for 40m anyway, but then again ive heard the old saying about a dipole in a tree beats a vertical with a great radial field or something like that.

my main interest is ragchewing on 40 in the evenings, some DX would be nice but its not the primary thing. i live in a pretty average suburban lot so salt marsh radial fields arent exactly an option, i was thinking maybe 16 to 24 radials at whatever length i can fit. anyone actually done a back to back comparison on 40m with these two setups or am i just spinning my wheels overthinking it

honestly for ragchewing 40m in the evenings the dipole is probably fine even at 30 feet. yeah its not ideal height, quarter wave would want you up around 33 feet anyway so youre close enough. the radiation angle will be higher than youd want for serious DX but for domestic and nearby stuff it works great. ive had a 40m dipole at 25 feet for years and work plenty of stuff, the feedline losses on a vertical with a marginal radial field can eat up whatever theoretical gain advantage it has pretty quick.

that said if you can do the radials right — and i mean at least 30+ of them cut to quarter wave — the vertical will do better on the low angle DX stuff. just depends what matters more to you. sounds like the dipole fits your use case and its simpler to build and tune. just do it and get on the air, youll tweak later anyway

i did almost exactly this comparison last year, had both up at the same time for a while running to a switch. the vertical was a hustler 6btv with about 20 radials, dipole was an inverted V at maybe 28 feet apex. on 40m for stateside the dipole won most of the time, for dx the vertical had a edge some nights but honestly it wasnt dramatic. the 6btv also needs a lot of fiddling to get right on 40, the traps are picky. if your goal is just getting on 40 and talking to people id just build the dipole, its like a two hour project and you know its gonna work