so ive been running a 40m dipole at about 25 feet for the past year and a half and its been okay, worked a decent amount of DX with it but nothing spectacular. a buddy of mine keeps telling me to just put up a vertical and be done with it, says the low angle radiation will blow my dipole out of the water for DX. but then i read all this stuff about verticals needing a good radial system or they're basically just a dummy load, and i really dont have the yard space to lay out 32 radials or whatever the magic number is supposed to be.

my lot is pretty small, maybe 60x90 feet, and most of it is taken up by the house and a couple trees. i was thinking maybe 4 or 6 elevated radials on a vertical might work as a compromise? or am i better off just trying to get the dipole up higher, like maybe 40-45 feet if i can manage it. the trees are there and i could probably run a line up into one of them. the feedpoint would still be low tho.

not really sure what the right move is here. anyone dealt with a similar situation

the elevated radial thing can work but you really want them resonant and at least a few of them, 4 is probably the minimum before you start seeing real efficiency. the ground losses with just 2 elevated radials can actually be worse than a decent buried system depending on soil. that said i ran a homebrew vertical on my old QTH with 6 elevated radials at about 8 feet up and it did pretty well on 40, definitely pulled some EU stuff i couldnt hear on my dipole at the time.

but honestly at 25 feet your dipole is what, maybe a third of a wavelength up on 40? getting it to 40+ feet would make a noticeable difference, not dramatic but real. if the tree is already there id try that first before tearing everything apart. a lot less work than building a vertical with a proper ground system.

yeah i went through almost this exact thing last spring. ended up just tying a line to a fishing pole and getting my center up to like 38 feet into a pine tree and the difference was noticeable, especially on the higher angle stuff which is more useful for stateside anyway. the DX improved a bit too but nothing crazy. i think people overestimate how much a vertical helps unless youve got a really good ground under it