so ive been going back and forth on this for probably two months now and i cant make up my mind. i have a decent backyard, maybe 80 feet end to end, and im trying to decide whether to put up a half wave dipole for 40 or just go with a vertical. the dipole would fit but barely, i'd have to angle one end down a bit which i know affects the pattern but honestly how much does it really matter at that scale.

the vertical option would be a homebrew ground mounted thing with radials, ive read everything from 16 radials to 120 radials and like... i'm not burying 120 radials. i was thinking 32 or so. the lot is pretty flat which is supposedly good for a vertical but i'm also surrounded by houses on three sides so i'm wondering if all that metal and concrete is going to mess with the ground system anyway.

mostly want to work stateside and some DX when the bands cooperate, not a contester just casual ragchewing and some pileups when something interesting comes up. anyone been in a similar situation and just picked one and been happy with it

honestly the inverted-v version of the dipole is probably your easiest path here. if you have any kind of support in the middle — a tree, a mast, even a tall fence post — you can get the apex up at like 30-35 feet and let both legs slope down. the pattern opens up a bit more toward the horizon compared to a flat dipole which is actually decent for DX, and the angled ends arent nearly as bad as people make them out to be as long as theyre not too close to the ground.

i ran an inverted v on 40 for three years before i had space for anything else and worked plenty of DX with it. nothing exotic, just a center insulator, some 14ga wire, and a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint. fed it with coax, done. the vertical with radials isnt bad but 32 radials is a real afternoon of work and if the ground conductivity around all those houses is sketchy you might be chasing your tail trying to figure out why the SWR is weird.

im kind of in the same boat, went with a vertical last year and tbh the radial situation is annoying. i did 24 and its fine but every time i mow i clip one and have to fix it. the dipole would have been simpler in retrospect. that said on 40 at night with a vertical the low angle radiation is real, i was working europe pretty regularly last winter which surprised me for how modest the setup is. depends what you want i guess