so i finally got around to building a simple 40m dipole out of some 14awg stranded wire i had laying around in the garage. cut each leg to about 33 feet which i calculated from the standard formula, got it up about 25 feet in an inverted V configuration with the apex tied to a tree. feedline is about 50 feet of RG-8X going into my shack.

the SWR at 7.150 is sitting around 1.8:1 which i guess isnt terrible but i was kind of expecting it to be closer to flat, like 1.2 or something. also the resonant point seems to be closer to 7.4 MHz which doesnt make sense to me because i thought you cut long and trim down but at 7.4 its showing like 1.1:1 and at 7.150 it climbs up. im using a cheap nano VNA to check this so maybe thats part of the problem but i dunno.

the wire runs through some tree branches in a couple spots and i wonder if that affects things. also i soldered the feedpoint connection but didnt use a balun or anything, should i have? ive read conflicting stuff about whether you really need one for a basic dipole.

the inverted V angle is almost certainly whats pulling your resonant frequency up. when you fold the legs down from horizontal the effective electrical length gets shorter so the antenna acts shorter than it actually is, which pushes resonance higher. its counterintuitive but thats how it works. most people find they need to add a few inches to each leg for an inverted V to get resonance back where they want it, so youre actually in decent shape just needs trimming back toward your target freq.

the 1.8:1 at 7.150 is honestly fine if your rig can handle it, most modern rigs with internal tuners wont even blink at that. but if you want to get it lower just lengthen both legs by equal amounts, maybe 3-4 inches at a time and recheck. go slow its easier to trim than to add back on.

the balun question is a real one. without one you can get common mode current running back down the outside of the coax which can mess with your pattern and sometimes cause RF in the shack. a simple 1:1 current balun or even a coax choke (wind 8-10 turns of your coax near the feedpoint) makes a real difference, worth doing even on a basic dipole.

yeah the wire touching branches will detune it a bit too, every contact point with wet wood especially adds some capacitive loading. not always a huge deal but if you can keep the last few feet of each leg clear of branches itll be more stable and predictable. i ran a 40m dipole through some pine branches for a while and the SWR would actually shift a little bit depending on whether it had rained recently which was annoying to track down.