so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and honestly i think im just spinning my wheels. i have a decent sized backyard, probably 80 feet usable end to end, and im trying to decide if i should just put up a simple 40m dipole or go with a vertical. currently running an IC-7300 into a tuner and whatever antenna i build will be my main HF antenna for a while.

the thing is, my yard slopes down toward the back so the dipole would be kind of a sloper anyway, apex maybe at 30 feet if im lucky off a mast i already have. ive read conflicting stuff about whether a sloping dipole changes the radiation pattern much vs a flat one. some people say it works great, others act like anything less than horizontal is a compromise. meanwhile a vertical seems simpler to erect but then everyone talks about needing a good radial field and i dont have a lot of open space around where it would go.

has anyone actually compared these two in a situation like mine and noticed a real difference on the air? not looking for theoretical answers, more like what actually worked for you

honestly in your situation id probably just do the sloper. 30 feet at the apex on 40m isnt amazing but its not bad either, and a sloper actually tends to have a slight low-angle lobe in the direction it slopes down which can be useful for dx. i ran one for two years before i had room for anything better and it worked fine, worked plenty of europe from the midwest on it.

the vertical thing — yeah the radial system is really where people underestimate the work. you can get away with fewer radials if you bury them but ideally you want at least 16 or so and even then if the ground conductivity around you isnt great it can be a real efficiency killer. with a dipole you dont have to think about any of that, the antenna is basically self-contained. just feed it with some decent coax and a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint and youre good.

if your yard is sloped anyway the sloper is kind of the natural fit. just try it and see how the signal reports are, worst case you move things around later.

i had almost the exact same setup question last year and went with the vertical mainly because i thought it would be easier to put up. it wasnt, the radials took forever and i ended up with like 12 of them which probably isnt enough. signals are ok but i always wonder if im leaving something on the table. might try a dipole next just to compare