[bars] 40M Dipole?

[William Smith]

Hi All,

As I mentioned last night during the Zoom meeting, I'm looking at building a 40M dipole out of some wire, insulators, and an SO-239 connector, using essentially the instructions at:

https://dcasler.com/2011/02/17/ham-radio-40-meter-dipole-your-first-antenna/

I'm hoping to stretch it out across the roof peak of my house, which has lots of space:



The ridge of the larger side is 40 feet, and the smaller side is 25 feet, so 66 feet ought to be do-able.

I have a couple of questions for the experts:

1) Does it make much difference if the antenna is straight?  I might do something like:



To stay away from the ridgelines, where I know there's a lot of wiring (the point of the "Vee" is where I have a couple of antenna poles.)

2) Obviously I want to start out long and shorten the wires, so as to avoid the "I cut it three times and it's still too short!" problem, but I'm not sure if I have to cut the (insulated) wire at the ends, or if I can wrap it back around itself (which would allow me to lengthen it if I overshoot).

3)  Should I aim for one end of the band or the middle?  Or is it going to be pretty good throughout the band?

Is there anything else I should know before I start?

Many thanks in advance!

73,

Willie
N1JBJ

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