when we used to run our station a friend of mine used to construct our dipoles for us and bring them to the site where he would screw the elements onto the centre plastic connector.
my part was the rig and we used to meet up on the site after dark.
I could never understand on how he used to get the swr so low that the needle barely moved from the bottom of the scale on the swr meter.
I know the swr meter was perfect as it was from my workshop.
to be honest I don't know if hes fitting a balun or not it was too dark and time was short to get the station up and running without causing any disturbances and to get away asap.
ive never had much luck with aerials and swr levels, ive always concentrated on the rig side of things.
so whats the secret?
I tried to put a rig on the other weekend and tried everything to get the swr down to a good level , never mind the 1:1 end , I couldnt get mine out of the red. the coax was new and the job was neat.

Hello Mr 123
Ive used many single dipoles with or without a balun and not noticed any difference in SWR?
I think you should double check the rig on a good dummy load firstly
Then check all connections, plugs and centerbox etc! ive always used URM67 (similar to Rg213) coax which can be tricky to fit into those small centerboxes!
Make sure your boom is around 3ft long and the elements are the correct length (total length including the center box)
Ive never had better than 1:1 SWR on any? but maybe thats just me??