so ive been putting off building my own dipole for like two years now and finally just did it last weekend. used some 14 gauge stranded wire i had laying around from an old extension cord project, cut each leg to about 16.5 feet for 40m, center insulator is just a piece of pvc i drilled out, and im feeding it with some RG-8X i had left over from another project.

got it up in an inverted V configuration, apex is maybe 25 feet up tied to my chimney and the ends slope down to about 8 feet off the ground on each side. swr is sitting around 1.8:1 at the bottom of the band and creeps up to like 2.6 by the top of 40m. i expected it to be a bit off but not sure if thats normal or if i messed up my feedpoint connections. i just twisted the shield to one leg and center to the other and taped everything with self amalgamating tape. no balun or anything. should i be worried about that or just trim the wire a bit and call it done

the swr curve you're describing is pretty typical honestly, especially for an inverted V because the ends being close to ground compresses the impedance a bit. a flat dipole at proper height usually lands close to 50 ohms but inverted V configs can come in lower, so 1.8 at the bottom isnt bad at all. trimming might help bring the resonant point up into the part of the band you use most.

the no-balun thing is worth addressing at some point though. common mode current on the coax braid can mess with your pattern and cause RF in the shack which is annoying to deal with later. a simple 1:1 choke balun wound on a ferrite toroid doesnt take long to build and makes a real difference. i wouldnt stress about it for casual use but if you start noticing weird stuff like audio hum or the radio acting up when you transmit its probably that.

yeah the swr sounds fine to me, my first dipole was way worse than that lol. one thing i learned the hard way is that stranded wire from extension cords can stretch a little over time especially if its holding any tension, so just keep an eye on your connections at the feedpoint after a few weeks of weather. my center connector pulled apart once during a rainstorm and i didnt notice for like a month wondering why the band seemed dead