Amanda Davis

honest answer - at 30 feet on 40m your dipole is basically a cloud warmer but that's not always a bad thing. for stateside contacts and regional nets it actually works really well, you'll have no trouble holding a frequency and working guys within 500-1000 miles. for dx it's gonna be a bit of a struggle on 40 especially if you're competing with stations that have beams or higher dipoles.
the vertical with a proper radial system is going to have a lower takeoff angle and you'll definitely notice it when chasing dx. but here's the thing people always skip over - radials are a pain. like if you just throw down 4 or 8 radials and call it done the vertical will probably disappoint you. you need 16 minimum to start seeing real improvement and ideally 32 or more. so factor that work into your decision. if you have the yard space and patience for radials, go vertical for the dx capability. if you just want something up fast that works well locally, the dipole at 30 feet will serve you fine for most of what you described.

yeah the pattern thing is real, took me forever to figure that out too. most experienced DX ops have a rhythm and if you pay attention for the first 10 minutes before you even think about calling you can usually figure it out. i've seen guys on dxpeditions who literally work a spiral pattern through their passband, predictable as clockwork once you see it
one thing i'd add — split discipline matters a lot. if they say listening 5 to 10 and you're calling on 7 you're just making noise for everyone. ive heard stations blowing the whole pileup apart because they cant be bothered to actually listen to where the DX says he's listening. and on that note, dont call on the DX's own frequency. i know that sounds obvious but you'd be amazed
for what its worth i had good luck with FT5XO on 17m around their sunset, signal was actually pretty solid into the midwest and the pileup had thinned out a bit by then. sometimes just picking a different band or a gray line window matters more than any technique

i went through this exact same thing a few months ago. ended up getting a baofeng to start just because i wasnt sure if i'd stick with the hobby and didnt want to spend more. chirp does work with it, that part is fine. honestly my only complaint is the battery feels a little cheap and the squelch knob is kind of stiff
but it got me on the air and on my local club's net and that was the point. if you end up really getting into it you'll probably want something better eventually anyway so maybe just start cheap and see where it goes

so i finally got around to building a dipole instead of just complaining about my vertical not working on 40m. cut two legs to about 33.5 feet each for 40m resonance, used some old 14 gauge stranded wire i had laying around from an electrical project, fed it with RG-8X through a choke balun i wound myself on a piece of PVC using a mix of turns i found on some random webpage (probably not ideal).
got it up in kind of an inverted V config with the apex at about 30 feet off the ground, ends are maybe 8 feet up tied to some fence posts. SWR is sitting around 1.4:1 at 7.150 which honestly surprised me, thought itd be way off. but i cant figure out why its reading higher on the low end of the band, like around 7.020 its closer to 2.1:1. shouldnt it be lower SWR down there if the antenna is cut a little long? or did i mess up my math somewhere. the legs might not be exactly equal length, i measured but the wire stretches a little when tensioned.
also using a cheap nano VNA to check, not sure how much i trust it but it seems consistent at least