so i finally pulled the trigger and built a simple 40m dipole out of some 14 gauge stranded wire i had laying around in the garage. cut each leg to roughly 33.5 feet, soldered them to a SO-239 chassis connector i had from an old project, and hung the whole thing up in an inverted-V configuration with the center about 25 feet off the ground using my push-up mast. fed it with about 50 feet of RG-8X coax.

got it on the analyzer and the resonant point came in around 6.9 MHz which is lower than i wanted, so i trimmed about 4 inches off each leg and now im sitting right at 7.150 which is pretty much where i was aiming. SWR at resonance is like 1.3:1 which i thought was decent for a first attempt. works fine with the internal tuner on the radio anyway.

my question is really about the feedline situation. i ran the coax directly from the center connector down to the shack with no choke or balun. should i be worrying about that? i keep reading conflicting stuff about whether you really need a choke balun on a dipole or if its just one of those things people argue about forever. also wondering if the inverted-V angle is hurting me much compared to a flat top — the legs are drooping down to about 10 feet at the ends. is that a meaningful difference or not really worth losing sleep over?

the balun question comes up constantly and yeah people do argue about it a lot but honestly for an inverted-V especially with that much coax running through your shack you really do want at least a choke. common mode current on the outside of the coax braid is a real thing and without a choke your feedline becomes part of the antenna which can mess with your pattern and sometimes cause RFI in the shack. cheapest fix is just winding 8-10 turns of the coax into a coil right at the feedpoint, maybe 6 inch diameter, and securing it with a zip tie. not a perfect choke balun but it knocks down the common mode significantly and costs basically nothing.

as for the inverted-V angle, honestly at 25 feet center height on 40m youre not going to be working DX off the sides but for domestic stuff it's totally fine. the pattern gets a bit more omnidirectional compared to a flat dipole which some people actually prefer. if the ends are at 10 feet thats a bit low, ideally you want them higher but if thats what the yard allows then just work with it. your SWR sounds good for a homebrew job, nice work getting it dialed in on the first try.

i had the exact same setup on 40 for about two years before i upgraded to a fan dipole. the coax choke thing i never bothered with at first and then one day i noticed my computer was picking up my transmissions through the audio cables and someone on the net told me it was likely common mode. wound about 12 turns on a piece of PVC pipe and the problem went away, so make of that what you will. the inverted V angle probably doesnt matter much at your power levels for most contacts, ive worked europe on 100 watts with mine sitting at similar heights so dont overthink it