so i finally got around to building a dipole instead of buying one, been putting it off for way too long. used 14 gauge stranded copper wire i had laying around from an old project, cut each leg to about 16.5 feet for 40m operation roughly. got it up in an inverted V config with the apex at maybe 30 feet off a tree in the backyard.

the feedpoint is where im a bit lost though. i twisted the wire ends together with the coax braid and center conductor, taped it up with self-amalgamating tape and called it done for now. swr is reading around 1.8:1 at 7.150 which honestly isnt terrible but i feel like i did the feedpoint wrong. should i be using a balun there? ive seen people go back and forth on this and im not sure if it actually matters for receive or if im overthinking it.

also the two legs are at about 120 degrees apart, not sure if that changes the feedpoint impedance much compared to a flat dipole. been getting decent reports on 40m so maybe it doesnt matter but would like to understand it better.

the 1.8:1 is totally workable, most tuners will handle that no problem and you'll lose maybe nothing meaningful in power. for a first build that's honestly pretty good.

on the balun question — it depends. without one you can get common mode current running back down the outside of the coax shield and that can cause RF in the shack, pattern distortion, all kinds of weirdness. a 1:1 current balun at the feedpoint is almost always worth it, even just a choke made from winding several turns of the coax around a ferrite toroid. i use FT240-31 cores for HF and they work great. you dont necessarily need a 4:1 here because a flat dipole is nominally 73 ohms and at 120 degrees the impedance drops a bit so you might actually be closer to 50 than you think, which explains the decent swr.

also your wire gauge is fine, 14 gauge has enough surface area for 40m power levels. the self-amalgamating tape is good stuff, just make sure you stretched it properly when you applied it or it'll peel back eventually especially in weather changes.

yeah i went through the same thing with my first dipole, spent way too long worrying about the feedpoint and it just worked anyway lol. i never put a balun on mine and it's been up two years, works fine. i know thats probably not the right answer but sometimes its just good to know it'll at least function.

one thing i would do different is use some kind of strain relief so the coax weight isnt pulling directly on your wire connections, had one come apart on me after a wind storm and it was annoying to fix up on a ladder.