so ive been running a compromised end-fed for about two years now and finally decided to just build a proper center-fed dipole for 40m. cut it to the standard formula, 468/f, ended up with two legs around 33 feet each. strung it up inverted-V style with the apex at maybe 28 feet off the ground using my pushup mast. coax down the center to the shack.

here's where im confused though. i built a simple ugly balun, just wound about 8 turns of the coax into a coil near the feedpoint, maybe 6 inch diameter coils. resonance came out around 7.150 which is pretty close to where i wanted it but the SWR curve is way wider than i expected, like it's under 2:1 from 7.0 all the way up to 7.3 which honestly seems too good? my old end-fed with the 9:1 unun was way more finicky. is that normal for a dipole or did i do something wrong that's making it look artificially flat. the antenna analyzer shows feedpoint impedance sitting around 58-62 ohms which seems right for an inverted V but i just want to make sure im not fooling myself here.

also the legs arent perfectly straight, one of them has a slight droop and kind of goes around a tree branch. probably affects things but not sure how much.

that SWR curve sounds completely normal for a 40m inverted V honestly. the lower apex angle and the legs drooping a bit actually broadens the bandwidth compared to a flat dipole, which is why you're seeing such a wide 2:1 window. nothing wrong with that at all, you didn't mess anything up. 58-62 ohms at the feedpoint for an inverted V checks out too, flat dipole in free space is theoretically 73 ohms but real-world inverted V with that apex height will pull it down toward 50, so coax is a pretty good match without even needing a balun in some cases.

the choke balun you wound is fine for keeping common mode off the coax shield, definitely keep it, but the reason your SWR looks so good isnt because something is wrong its just because thats how dipoles behave. the end fed wire with a 9:1 unun is always going to be fussier because youre working against a bad impedance transformation and any little thing changes things. a resonant dipole fed with coax is just a more forgiving system. go operate it, youll probably like it.

the tree branch thing is probably fine, i have wires draped over and around trees all over my yard and they work. might shift resonance a tiny bit if the wire is actually touching the bark but as long as its not wrapped around a wet branch or something you wont notice much. some guys actually use trees as supports on purpose, not just out of laziness lol