so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and been using a whip on my HT which is fine for local stuff but i really want to get on HF. cant afford a commercial antenna right now and honestly i kind of want to learn by doing anyway so im going to try building a 40m dipole from wire i already have.

i have some leftover 14 gauge stranded copper from an old project and i was going to use that. the formula is pretty simple, 468 divided by frequency in MHz, split in half for each leg. so for 7.150 thats roughly 65 feet total, each leg about 32.5 feet. thats what i got anyway. my question is whether the 14 gauge stranded is actually okay or if i need something different. i also dont have a balun — do i absolutely need one or can i just connect the coax center to one leg and shield to the other and call it good enough for now.

planning to run it as an inverted V off my chimney, apex maybe 30 feet up. i know thats not ideal height but its what i have. running 100 watts from an ic-7300.

14 gauge stranded is totally fine for a dipole, honestly ive used everything from 18 gauge speaker wire to 12 gauge solid and they all work. the wire gauge mainly matters for current handling and mechanical strength, and at 100w you wont have any issues with either. stranded is actually better for a wire antenna because it flexes without breaking over time.

the balun question — technically you should have one, a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint keeps RF off the coax shield which can cause all kinds of weird issues like the radio being hot to the touch, pattern distortion, noise on receive, etc. but plenty of people run dipoles without one and get decent results, especially at lower power. if youre just getting started and want to get on the air, connect it up your way and see how it performs. you can always add a choke later. a simple air-wound choke of several turns of coax in a coil at the feedpoint works surprisingly well and costs nothing.

inverted V at 30 feet on 40m is going to give you a pretty high angle of radiation which actually works well for regional contacts. dont let anyone tell you its useless, its a real antenna and it will get you on the air. just spread those legs out as far as you can to keep the angle between them above 90 degrees if possible.

yeah the wire is fine dont overthink it. i built my first 40m dipole with wire i pulled out of an old extension cord and worked half the country with it lol. the balun thing is real though, i skipped it on my first build and had RF feedback into my mic on certain frequencies, was a pain to track down. just wind like 8 turns of your feedline coax into a coil about 4 inches diameter right at the feedpoint and tape it up, thats basically a choke balun and it solved my problem instantly.

also when you go to tune it after you hang it, cut it a little long first, maybe 2-3 feet extra per leg, and trim from there. way easier than trying to add wire back. and your SWR will shift depending on height and nearby objects so what works on the ground wont be exactly right when its up in the air.