so i've been on the air for about 8 months now using a buddistick that came with my radio bundle and honestly it's been fine but i always felt like i was leaving a lot on the table signal-wise. a buddy from my local club kept telling me just build a dipole, just build one, it's not hard. so last weekend i finally did it.

i used about 66 feet of 14 gauge stranded copper wire i pulled from an old extension cord, cut it roughly in half, soldered both halves to a SO-239 chassis connector through a little piece of plexiglass i drilled out as the center insulator. ran 50 ohm coax down to the shack. ended up in kind of an inverted-V shape because i only have one tall support point (a tree branch at maybe 28 feet) and i tied the ends off to my fence posts at like 5 feet off the ground.

thing actually works, like way better than the buddistick for 40m which is what i cut it for. but im getting a pretty high SWR on 20m, around 2.8:1 which my tuner handles fine but it bugs me. is that expected for a dipole that's not cut for that band or did i do something wrong with the build? also wondering if the inverted-V shape is hurting me versus a flat top - i know the angles are pretty steep given my setup.

yeah 2.8:1 on 20m is totally expected, you built a 40m dipole so it's gonna be resonant around 7 MHz and harmonically it won't land perfectly on 14 either. your tuner dealing with it is the correct answer honestly. if you want a multi-band solution from the same feedpoint look into a fan dipole, just add another pair of legs cut for 20m and connect them at the same center insulator. they do interact a little but in practice it works pretty well and you dont need a tuner on either band.

the inverted-V angle thing is real but 28 feet at the apex with ends at 5 feet is a pretty decent compromise for 40m, you're not hurting yourself badly. the radiation pattern shifts a bit more skyward compared to a flat top but for domestic contacts it might actually help you. i wouldnt stress about it with your current supports.

extension cord wire works fine for this, done it myself more than once. some people get snooty about it but copper is copper for a receive and low power situation. only thing i'd watch is that plexiglass center - in my experience it can get a little weird after a season of UV exposure and rain, might want to swap it for some actual weatherproof material down the line or even just a piece of scrap cutting board material, that HDPE stuff holds up really well outside.