ok so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i cant make up my mind. i have a decent sized backyard, probably 120 feet of usable run if i do a dipole at maybe 35 feet, which isnt great but its what i got. the alternative is throwing up a vertical in the corner of the yard, probably a hustler or something similar with a few radials.

mostly interested in 40m for evening ragchewing and maybe some light dx chasing. not really a contester. my noise floor here is already kind of bad, S5 or so on a quiet night, neighbors with solar inverters and all that junk. heard that dipoles tend to reject more noise than a vertical but also heard the low angle radiation on a vertical is better for dx. i feel like im reading contradictory stuff everywhere.

does anyone actually have side by side experience with both on 40? like real world not just antenna modeling software. and yeah i know the answer is probably just try both but id rather not buy a vertical if the dipole is gonna walk all over it for what im doing

ran a 40m dipole at about 30 feet for years before i put up a vertical and honestly for ragchewing the dipole was fine, better even most of the time. the noise thing is real — my vertical picks up all kinds of garbage that the dipole just doesnt hear. for DX it flips around a bit depending on conditions and path but for domestic stuff the dipole won pretty consistently in my experience. at 35 feet youre not getting great low angle radiation anyway so youre not really giving up that much dx performance compared to a vertical with a mediocre radial field. id say do the dipole first, get it working, and if youre still jones-ing for a vertical after a few months then add one.

yeah the noise rejection thing with dipoles is legit, especially if you orient it away from the worst offenders. i pointed mine sort of broadside to my neighbors house and it helped a surprising amount. also 35 feet on 40 isnt amazing but its not terrible either, ive worked plenty of dx from similar heights. honestly a vertical with only a handful of radials is probably going to dissapoint you anyway, you need a lot of radials to make those things sing and thats a whole other project