so ive been putting off building my own dipole for like two years now because i kept telling myself id just buy something eventually but yeah that never happened so last weekend i finally just did it. cut two legs of 14 gauge solid copper wire for 40m, roughly 33.5 feet each, used a choc block connector as a cheap center insulator (i know i know) and hung it inverted-v style off my chimney about 25 feet at the apex.

fed it with about 40 feet of RG-8X i had lying around. hooked up the analyzer and im getting like 1.8:1 SWR at around 7.150 which honestly isnt terrible but the resonant dip is sitting around 7.080 and i wanted it closer to 7.2 for SSB. so do i just trim both legs equally? or is there a smarter way to do this. also the feedpoint connection is just the wires twisted and shoved into the choc block with the coax center and shield — should i be worried about that long term or is it fine for now

also the inverted-v configuration, does the angle of the legs affect resonant frequency much? mine are at maybe 120 degrees included angle roughly

trimming both legs equally is the right move yeah, trim a little at a time from each end, like an inch or two, retune and check again. going from 7.080 to 7.2 you probably only need to lose maybe 4-5 inches total off each side so dont go crazy. the inverted-v angle does shift things a little compared to a flat dipole — generally makes it look slightly shorter electrically so your resonance ends up a bit lower, which kinda tracks with what youre seeing. the 120 degree angle is pretty common and fine.

the choc block thing is going to be a problem eventually. not immediately, but water gets in, corrosion sets in, and then your connection goes to hell over a winter. if you want a proper cheap fix just get a piece of HDPE cutting board or even a decent hardwood, drill two holes, use proper ring terminals crimped to the wire and a stainless bolt with locknuts. seriously takes 20 minutes and will last years. the twisted wire in a terminal block is just asking for grief in a year or so.

yeah i did almost the exact same thing last spring on my first build, including the choc block lol. mine worked fine for like 3 months then one leg basically fell out in a rainstorm and i had no idea why my SWR went to infinity. so get that sorted sooner rather than later. other than that sounds like youre in good shape for a first build honestly