so ive been running a simple 40m dipole at about 25 feet for a couple years now and its been fine honestly but i keep reading about how a vertical would be better for DX because of the lower takeoff angle and i cant decide if its worth ripping everything down and starting over

my dipole is kind of an inverted V setup, apex at 25ft, ends coming down to about 8ft off the ground. i can work europe from the midwest pretty regularly when conditions are decent but i feel like im leaving contacts on the table, especially on the long path stuff. neighbor two streets over has a big vertical with a radial field and he says he hears things i never do

anyone actually done a side by side comparison or switched from one to the other and noticed a real world difference? not asking about theoretical dB numbers just actual on air experience. wondering if the ground here would even support a decent vertical, its pretty clay heavy soil

honestly the answer is kind of both, which i know is annoying to hear. my experience was that the vertical killed the dipole on DX paths where i needed a low angle but the dipole was way more useful for stateside stuff and anything under maybe 1500 miles. the noise floor on my vertical is also noticeably higher since its closer to the ground level junk

clay soil isnt the worst but you really do need a proper radial system or youre just radiating into a lossy ground and wasting half your power. ive seen guys with 16 radials outperform guys with 60 because the 16 were actually a quarter wave and laid out properly. if you cant do at least 16-20 radials maybe the dipole isnt as much of a disadvantage as you think

at 25 feet your inverted V is going to have a higher angle than a flat top dipole but its not terrible for 40m. if you can get the apex up to 35 or 40 feet youll notice a difference before you even think about switching to a vertical

I switched from an inverted V to a vertical about 18 months ago and yeah the DX improved but not as dramatically as the forums made me think it would. like I worked a few new countries but I was already working europe pretty regularly on the dipole so it wasnt a night and day thing

the thing nobody tells you is how much the vertical picks up local noise. I'm in a suburban lot and the thing hears every switching power supply within half a mile it feels like. ended up putting the dipole back up too and just switching between them depending on what im trying to do