so ive been going back and forth on this for a while and i figured id just ask here since there's people who've actually tried both. i have a pretty standard 40m dipole up about 30 feet, fed with coax, nothing fancy, works fine for local stuff and some regional contacts but i feel like im missing DX that other guys in the area seem to be working with no problem.

a buddy of mine runs a vertical on a ground mounted radial field and swears by it for DX on 40, says the low angle radiation beats a dipole at that height every time. and yeah theoretically i get it, a dipole at 30ft on 40m is only like 0.2 wavelengths up so it's more of a NVIS cloud-burner than a DX machine. but ive also read plenty of stuff saying a good dipole can still compete if the vertical has a mediocre radial system.

my question is really whether its worth pulling the dipole down and putting up a vertical, or if i should just try to get the dipole higher. getting it higher is kind of a pain because of my lot layout but not impossible. the vertical option would be easier to install but id have to lay radials which is also a whole project. anyone gone through this same decision?

the radial system question is really the crux of it honestly. ive seen verticals with 4 or 8 radials get smoked by a modest dipole and ive seen a proper 60+ radial field absolutely kill a low dipole for DX. the problem is laying enough radials to really make the vertical shine is more work than most people want to do. if you can get 32-60 radials down, decent lengths, your vertical is going to be tough to beat for low angle stuff on 40. if you're only going to do like 8-10 radials dont bother, you'd be better off just raising the dipole even if it's a hassle.

also worth thinking about noise. verticals pick up a lot more local noise in my experience, depends on your QTH obviously but if you're suburban that can really hurt you even if the antenna technically has better low angle gain on paper.

i went through basically the exact same thing last year. ended up putting up a 43ft vertical with about 25 radials and yeah the DX improved noticeably, worked a bunch of JA and VK on 40 that i never got on my dipole. but the dipole is honestly still better for everything under like 1500 miles, it just works quieter and the signal reports are more consistent. if you can do it i'd keep both up, thats what im doing now and switching between them depending on what im trying to work.