so i finally got around to building a basic 40m dipole instead of just buying one, figured it couldnt be that hard right. cut the elements to the standard formula, 468/f in MHz, came out to about 33 feet per leg. used some old 14 gauge stranded copper i had sitting around from a house project, fed it with RG-8X through a 1:1 choke balun i wound myself on a type 31 toroid, about 10 turns.

hung it up in an inverted V config, apex at maybe 30 feet off the ground, ends probably 8 or 9 feet up tied to fence posts. SWR at 7.150 is sitting around 1.4:1 which honestly isnt bad at all, but down at 7.025 it climbs up to like 2.8 or 3:1 which is annoying because thats where i like to run CW. if i go up toward 7.2 or so it actually gets worse too, like 2.5ish.

not sure if its the inverted V geometry messing with things or if i just need to trim a tiny bit more off the ends. the resonant point seems like its sitting a bit high in the band. tried fanning the ends out a bit thinking that might help but honestly couldnt tell much difference. any ideas before i start hacking away at it

your resonant point is just a hair high is all, classic thing with the 468 formula - it gets you in the ballpark but every installation is different depending on height, soil, nearby objects, whatever. the inverted V does shift things a bit too, the sloping legs effectively make it act slightly shorter electrically than a flat dipole would at the same total length.

what i'd do is add a few inches to each leg first rather than cutting, since you want to move resonance down toward 7.025 area. adding wire moves it lower, cutting moves it higher. you can either splice on a short extension or just fold the ends back and tape them temporarily to see if youre going in the right direction before committing. go slow, like 2-3 inches at a time and check SWR each time. it takes a while but once you nail it it stays nailed. also double check that balun winding, a poorly wound choke can sometimes skew readings a bit but honestly 1.4 at center sounds like you're pretty close already.

yeah im in the same boat with my 20m dipole, mine resonates like 50kHz high from where i wanted it. i just run it through my tuner and call it a day honestly, the radio doesnt care that much as long as its within reason. but if youre going for no-tuner operation on CW that 3:1 at the low end is gonna annoy you for sure, some rigs dont love that.