so ive been going back and forth on this for probably two months now and i cant decide. im putting together a 40m setup at my new QTH, decent lot but the backyard is kinda narrow so a full halfwave dipole would have to go at a weird angle or i'd have to bend the ends. not ideal. the other option i keep coming back to is a vertical, maybe a trap vertical or just a resonant quarterwave with a ground radial system. the lot is also pretty flat which i guess helps for verticals but i dont really know how critical the radials actually are in practice vs theory.

the thing is i hear so many people say verticals are noise magnets and then i hear other people say they work great for DX. im mostly interested in general HF operating, some DX occasionally but not like hardcore contesting. would the inverted-V version of the dipole be a reasonable middle ground if i cant do a flat-top? feels like i keep reading conflicting stuff everywhere.

the inverted-V is honestly probably your best starting point, especially if youre not going full DX mode. as long as the apex is up there — ideally 40 feet or higher — it'll work fine, maybe lose a couple dB over a flat dipole but nothing that'll actually matter in real life. the angle of the legs does affect the radiation angle a little but again, for general operating you wont notice.

the vertical thing about noise isnt a myth though. if you're in a suburban area with switching power supplies and all that garbage everywhere, a low dipole will often outperform a vertical on receive just because of its rejection pattern. but if you put up a vertical with a proper radial field — and i mean actually 30-60 radials on the ground, not 4 or 8 — it can be a seriously good antenna especially for dx because of the low takeoff angle. the problem is most people slap up a vertical with a handful of radials and wonder why it sounds mediocre.

yeah the radial thing is where people always cut corners including me. i put up a quarterwave vertical for 40 a couple years back with like 8 radials and it was okay but nothing special. eventually laid down 32 radials and it was noticeably better on both rx and tx. still picked up more local noise than my dipole does but for working europe in the early evening it was hard to beat. i'd say just do the inverted-V first since its cheaper and easier to experiment with, get on the air, and then if you catch the vertical bug later you can always add it as a second antenna and a/b them yourself.