so i've been putting this off forever but last weekend i finally just did it. cut a dipole for 40m using the standard 468/f formula, ended up cutting each leg to about 33.2 feet which put me at like 7.05 mhz as the target. used some 14 gauge solid copper wire i had sitting in the garage, center insulator is just a piece of pvc i drilled holes through and sealed with some silicone.

fed it with about 50 feet of RG-8X running down to my shack. i'm getting an SWR of around 1.4:1 at 7.1 which honestly is better than i expected for a first attempt but im a little confused about a few things. when i trim it do i trim both legs equally or just one? and also the ends are just twisted back on themselves right now, is that good enough or should i solder them? the antenna is in an inverted-v config with the apex at about 30 feet, legs sloping down to about 8 feet at each end tied off to my fence posts.

overall pretty happy with it but would love to hear from people who've done a lot of these

1.4:1 on your first homebrew dipole at 7.1 is honestly solid, dont even mess with it unless you specifically need to operate lower in the band. but to answer your questions - yeah trim both legs equally, small amounts at a time, like half inch to an inch per session and then remeasure. trimming just one leg will start shifting your feedpoint impedance in weird ways and youll spend more time chasing your tail than if you just do it symmetrically.

on the solder question, for a fixed installation you really should solder the ends and ideally put some self-amalgamating tape over the whole thing especially if you're in a wet climate. twisted copper oxidizes over time and your contact resistance will creep up on you. i've seen antennas that looked fine visually but had corroded terminations killing several dB. take the extra 20 minutes, solder it, tape it, done.

the inverted-v at 30 feet with 8 foot ends is a little low at the tips but for a first antenna it'll work. if you can get those ends up even a foot or two it helps with the radiation angle a bit. sounds like you're off to a good start though.

nice work, i did basically the same thing when i was starting out except mine was way messier lol. one thing i'll add - that pvc center insulator is fine for now but if you leave it outside in the UV for a couple years it will get brittle and crack. might want to look at getting a proper egg insulator or even just a chunk of HDPE cutting board material, that stuff lasts forever outdoors. not urgent just something to think about down the road.