so ive been putting this off for probably two years now, kept buying commercial antennas and wondering why i wasnt happy with them. finally just did it last weekend. cut a simple 40m dipole out of some 14 gauge stranded copper i had sitting in the garage, used a SO-239 chassis connector i pulled off an old project for the center insulator, and hung it up inverted-V style between the house and a tree maybe 35 feet up at the apex.

the swr came out at like 1.3:1 at 7.150 which honestly surprised me, i figured i'd have to trim a bunch. did end up cutting maybe 6 inches off each leg after the first measurement but that was it. whole thing cost me almost nothing and it's noticeably better than the trapped vertical i had up before, at least on 40.

anyway i guess my question is — is 14 gauge stranded a decent choice for the wire or should i have used solid? ive seen people say different things. also wondering if the cheap chassis connector is gonna be a problem long term, the center pin already looks a little oxidized and i only put it up a week ago.

14 gauge stranded is totally fine, i've run antennas with that for years without issues. some guys swear by solid copper but honestly for a backyard dipole at reasonable power levels you're not gonna notice a difference. the main thing is to seal everything up — that center connector being oxidized after a week is a bit of a red flag. if you didnt weatherproof it that's gonna cause you headaches, moisture gets in there and it gets ugly fast. i usually wrap the whole feedpoint in self-amalgamating tape, like several layers, and that keeps things pretty solid through winter.

the inverted-V is a good pattern for 40 too, you get some low angle radiation if the apex is high enough but also decent coverage closer in. what are you feeding it with, coax straight to the rig or do you have a balun in there?

yeah the SO-239 thing is gonna be an issue, i learned that the hard way. built a 20m dipole a couple years ago and used one of those cheap connectors from a parts bag and it was corroded to basically useless by the following spring. switched to proper outdoor rated stuff and havent had a problem since. some people just make a simple wire-wound balun right at the feedpoint and skip the connector mess altogether, just solder the coax braid and center directly to the legs through a few turns on a toroid. cleaner install honestly.