so ive been putting this off for months but i finally sat down last weekend and built a center-fed dipole for 40m out of some 14awg stranded wire i had laying around from an old project. used a choc block connector as a temporary center piece which i know isnt ideal but i wanted to get something up fast. the formula i used was the standard 468/f and for 7.150 that gave me about 65.5 feet total, so roughly 32.75 per side.

my question is about the feedline situation. i ran about 50 feet of RG-8X from the center down to the shack and im getting a decent SWR around 1.4:1 at my target freq which honestly i was surprised by. no balun yet, which i know people are gonna jump on me for. does it matter that much if im just doing casual SSB, like am i gonna have RF issues or is it more of a noise/pattern thing? also the antenna is only about 18-20 feet up which i know is low for 40m but thats the best i can do right now with the trees i have.

overall though im pretty happy with it, the wire cost me nothing and it loaded up fine on my 7300. just wondering if i should bother with a choke balun before my next session or if i can wait til i have time to wind one properly.

the balun question comes up every time and honestly for casual SSB at lower power you might not notice a difference at all, but the reason people push for a choke is less about SWR and more about common mode current on the coax shield. without one the coax braid becomes part of your radiating system which can cause RF in the shack, weird SWR behavior if you touch the coax, that sort of thing. at 18-20 feet up on 40m you're also going to have a pretty high angle of radiation which limits you to regional stuff mostly, NVIS territory really, but for local nets and ragchewing thats not necessarily bad.

if you want a quick choke wind 8-10 turns of your feedline coax through a type 31 mix toroid, costs a couple bucks and takes 15 minutes. your 1.4:1 SWR sounds totally reasonable for a dipole that hasnt been trimmed yet, id say leave it and just wind the balun before you do any serious operating. the stranded 14awg is fine by the way, ive been using similar wire for years.

yeah 1.4:1 without a balun and a choc block center is pretty solid for a first build honestly. i ran a dipole for almost a year with no choke and the main thing i noticed was my feedline was picking up noise from somewhere in the house, took me forever to figure out that was the issue. once i added a cheap 1:1 choke balun it got noticeably quieter on receive. might not be your situation but worth keeping in mind if you start hearing weird noise floors.