so i finally stopped procrastinating and just built a simple 40m dipole out of some 14awg stranded wire i had laying around in the garage. cut each leg to roughly 33.5 feet going by the 468/f formula, hung it up in an inverted V config with the apex at about 30 feet off a tree in the backyard. center insulator is just a piece of PVC i drilled holes through, nothing fancy.

got it connected to my radio with some RG-8X and the SWR is reading around 1.4:1 at 7.150 which honestly i wasnt expecting it to be that close right out of the gate. my question is about the feed point though - im using a PL-259 directly at the center, no choke or balun or anything. ive read conflicting stuff about whether you really need a balun on a basic dipole like this. some guys say you absolutely need one to stop RF from coming back down the coax shield and some guys say for a basic install at low power its fine. running 100w, nothing crazy.

also the legs arent perfectly equal in height at the ends, one side droops a bit more than the other because of where the trees are. is that gonna throw the pattern off significantly or is a dipole forgiving enough that it doesnt really matter at these heights anyway

the balun question comes up constantly and honestly the answer is it depends. at 100w with a decent ground path you might never notice any issues without one - RF on the coax braid is real but whether it actually causes problems in your specific setup depends on a lot of factors like how long your coax run is, how it's routed, whether you're getting any feedback in the shack etc. if everything sounds clean and your SWR is stable i wouldnt stress it immediately. that said a 1:1 current choke at the feedpoint is cheap insurance and worth doing at some point, even just a few turns of coax through a toroid.

the uneven leg heights, yeah thats fine. dipoles are pretty tolerant of imperfect geometry especially at those heights. your pattern will shift slightly but for general operating on 40m you wont care. 1.4:1 without even trimming is a solid result, most guys have to go back and forth a few times to get there.

i built basically the same thing last year and ran it without a balun for months before i started getting RF into my audio during digital modes. added a ugly balun (just coiled up the coax near the feedpoint, like 8 turns or so) and it went away. might not be your problem at all but something to keep in mind if you start hearing weirdness