I just put up a dipole antenna for 40M,
used plane copper wire and a bauln that I got years ago
ceramic insulators on each end. trees are my posts on each side
used 550 cord to go from the insulators to make the distance to get to the trees
center post is the remains of a tree that had died that I cut fairly tall in order to use it as an antenna post
ground rod in the center as part of the lightning protection
it works.
I did it to replace a vertical antenna
the vertical made my inside lights flash when I talked, also tripped my GFI circuits
and did so when transmitting outside and in no way connected to the house
the dipole works perfect with no bad effects at all
it was this thread that got me to bother to put it up,
so thank you for the motivation to do it