so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and im just gonna ask. i have a decent sized yard, maybe 120 feet usable in one direction if i run it at kind of an angle toward the back fence. the lot isnt huge but its not terrible either. the question is whether i should just put up a simple 40m dipole fed with coax or go with a vertical. my main concern is noise - im in a suburb and the QRN here is pretty rough, S5-6 on a bad day from all the switching power supplies and whatever my neighbors have going on.

i keep reading that a horizontal dipole at decent height will reject a lot of local noise better than a vertical because of the radiation angle and polarization stuff, but then i also read that verticals are good for dx because of the low angle radiation. im not a hardcore dx chaser but i do like working some dx when it comes up. mostly i just ragchew on 40 and 75 meters in the evenings.

the other thing is i dont really have tall trees or supports except for one decent oak on the side of the yard that might get me to 40 feet if im lucky. would an inverted V off that tree even be worth it at that height or should i just do a vertical with some radials and call it done

40 feet for an inverted V on 40 meters is actually fine for what youre describing. its not ideal - you want the apex higher if you can get it - but for local and regional ragchewing it works perfectly well and the noise rejection compared to a vertical is gonna be noticeable, especially with the QRN levels you mentioned. i ran an inverted V at 35 feet for years before i got taller supports and worked plenty of dx with it too, its not like the low angle radiation completely disappears.

the vertical thing is a real consideration but people underestimate how much work a good radial field takes to actually perform. if you go that route and just throw down 4 or 8 radials youre leaving a lot of efficiency on the table. for a suburban lot a resonant dipole or inverted V is usually the easier path to actually getting on the air and staying there without constant fussing.

honestly just do the inverted V, same situation here a couple years ago and i spent way too long agonizing over it. put it up, tune it, get on the air. you can always add a vertical later if you catch the dx bug bad enough. the noise thing is real btw, my vertical picked up everything in the neighborhood, switched to a dipole and it was noticeably quieter.