so ive been running a hustler 6BTV for about 3 years now and it's been fine, does what it does, but i always kind of wondered what i was missing on the lower bands especially 40 and 80. finally got around to putting up a fan dipole last weekend with legs cut for 40 and 80, fed with a single run of RG-8X into the shack.

honestly the difference on 80 is pretty noticeable, not like night and day but signals that were borderline on the vertical are definitely more readable now. 40 feels about the same maybe slightly better but i think that's because my vertical ground radials on that band were actually decent. the fan dipole is only about 25 feet up which isnt ideal i know, but its what i had to work with given the trees in my yard.

anyway i know this isnt exactly scientific and my sample size is like two evenings of operating but curious if others have done similar comparisons or if there's something obvious im missing about why one would be better than the other in certain conditions. also the SWR on the 80m legs is sitting around 1.4:1 at resonance which i think is fine but it wandered up toward 2.5:1 toward the band edges which i wasnt really expecting.

the SWR wandering at the band edges on 80 is totally normal, that band is wide and a simple dipole is only going to be resonant across maybe 100-150kHz before it starts climbing depending on how fat your wire is. some guys use a tuner for the band edges or just cut it for wherever they spend most of their time — phone end or cw end. if you're mostly doing SSB phone cut it for around 3.9 and live with the edges.

as for the comparison itself yeah a dipole almost always wins on receive over a trapped or loaded vertical especially when the vertical's ground system isnt perfect. the vertical will usually do better at low angles for DX if the radials are good, but for regional and domestic stuff the dipole just has a cleaner signal path. 25 feet isnt great but its not terrible either, you'd definitely see improvement getting it up to 40+ feet if you ever get the chance.

what wire did you use for the fan dipole? im thinking about doing something similar but i have no idea if there's a meaningful difference between regular 14 gauge house wire and like actual antenna wire. my vertical is also pretty mediocre on 80 and i dont really have room for a full size dipole but maybe a fan could fit if i angle the legs out a bit