so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and cant really make up my mind. my backyard is maybe 60 feet wide so a full size 40m dipole would basically span the whole thing end to end if i ran it straight, but i could probably get it up about 30 feet or so off the ground. the other option i keep thinking about is just putting up a vertical, maybe a trapped one or i could homebrew a quarter wave with some radials and actually have room to lay out maybe 8 or 10 radials without my wife completely losing it.

ive been reading that a dipole at 30 feet on 40m is basically in the near field and wont do much for DX anyway, but then other guys say even a low dipole beats a vertical with a poor radial system. i guess my actual question is — for general ragchewing and some casual DX when conditions are good, which would you go with given that setup? im running about 100w, nothing crazy.

honestly both can work fine at those power levels, but the thing people dont talk about enough is that a low dipole like that is going to be more of a cloud warmer — great for regional stuff, NVIS kind of angles, but yeah you wont be punching into europe or japan with it on 40 very often. the vertical with a halfway decent radial system can actually surprise you for DX. key word being halfway decent though. i ran a quarter wave vertical on 40 for about two years with 16 radials on the ground and it was competitive with my neighbor who has a dipole at 50 feet. not better, but competitive.

if youre mostly ragchewing domestically id honestly just do the dipole and not stress about it. easier to build, nothing to tune, works day one.

the inverted V might be worth considering if you only have one support in the middle — you can get the apex up higher and the ends dont need as much horizontal space. i did that in my backyard with a single mast and it works pretty well on 40. not a beam obviously but gets the job done and its dead simple to build