so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and finally decided to stop using the whip on my HF rig and actually build something real. going for a simple 40m dipole to start, planning to hang it between two trees in the backyard maybe 25 feet up if i can get the rope over the right branches.

i ordered a bunch of 14 AWG stranded copper wire from the hardware store and grabbed a SO-239 chassis connector to make the center piece. my question is about the length — the formula is obviously 468/f but do i cut exactly to length and then trim, or do i cut a bit long first and work my way down? i feel like i know the answer but i want to make sure before i waste wire. also not sure if stranded vs solid matters much at 40m, ive seen both mentioned online.

the other thing bugging me is the feedline. i have about 50 feet of RG-8X laying around, is that going to be a problem without a balun? i know some people say you absolutely need one and others seem to skip it. running an IC-7300 if that matters.

cut long, always cut long. seriously like add 6 inches per side minimum and then trim toward resonance with an analyzer or SWR meter. wire is cheap and cutting it back takes two minutes but you cant add length once its gone. stranded is fine at 40m, the skin effect stuff only really matters at VHF and above, dont overthink it.

on the balun question — honestly for a basic backyard dipole you can get away without one but youll probably notice some RF on the coax shield and it can mess with the pattern a bit. i just wind a few turns of the coax into a choke coil near the feedpoint and call it a day, works well enough. but if you want to do it right a 1:1 current balun there is the proper move. for a first build though just get it in the air and see how it plays, you can always add stuff later.

yeah i did almost the exact same thing for my first antenna, 40m dipole with whatever wire i had. one thing nobody told me that i wish they had — the trees move. like obviously they move in wind but i mean they also grow and shift and the tension on your rope changes with seasons. first hard wind i had my whole center piece came down because i didn't leave any slack in the feedline drop. just something to think about when you're rigging it up, give yourself a little droop in the coax so it doesn't pull the connector.

RG-8X over 50 feet on 40m is totally fine loss wise, dont worry about that.