so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i cant decide. currently running a 40m dipole at about 25 feet which i know isnt ideal, the textbooks want it at half wavelength up which would be like 66 feet and thats just not happening in my backyard. been getting decent contacts but nothing spectacular and im wondering if a vertical would actually do better at that height or if im just chasing my tail.

the thing that keeps pulling me toward a vertical is the low angle radiation, everyone says its better for DX and ive been trying to work more of europe and south america on 40. but then i read about radials and that whole mess and i dont have a great ground here, pretty rocky soil in this part of colorado. a buddy of mine runs a hustler vertical with like 8 radials and he says it works fine but he's also at a lower elevation than me which probably matters.

anyone actually done a real comparison between the two in similar conditions? not looking for antenna modeling software answers, just real world experience from people who've actually swapped one for the other.

ran both for a while on 40, dipole at about 30 feet and then a ground mounted vertical with 16 radials. honest answer is it really depends on what youre trying to do. the dipole was noticeably better for stateside stuff, especially the midwest to west coast path. the vertical cleaned its clock on DX once i got enough radials down, but i had to put down probably 24 before i stopped losing ground to resistive losses. rocky soil is a real problem, some guys in that situation go with an elevated vertical and just a few elevated radials instead of trying to fight the ground - that can actually work pretty well and saves you the radial farming headache.

25 feet for a 40m dipole isnt as bad as people make it sound honestly. youre NVIS territory at that height which is great for regional stuff within like 500 miles but yeah for DX youre sending a lot of signal straight up. if DX is the goal i'd try the vertical route but budget for doing the radials properly or go elevated, cutting corners there just wastes your time.

i went through almost exactly this same thing last year. ended up building a fan dipole with a 40 and 20 leg off the same feedpoint, got it up about 28 feet inverted-v style. not gonna pretend it outperforms a proper beam or anything but ive worked japan and argentina on it so its not hopeless. the inverted-v configuration actually helps a bit with the low hanging height because the ends droop down and the angle changes the radiation pattern somewhat. anyway probably not what you asked but might be worth considering before you go digging holes for a vertical base.