so ive been doing a lot of hilltop activations lately, mostly on 2m and 70cm, and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother lugging a yagi up there or just stick with my trusty diamond x50 on a painters pole. the collinear is obviously way easier, just strap it to the pole and youre done in like 5 minutes. but theres a few repeaters and some ssb activity i want to hit that are maybe just on the edge of what the x50 can do from my usual spots.

i was looking at a cheap 5 element dual band yagi, one of those m2 or arrow style deals. the gain difference on paper looks nice but i keep hearing people say the pattern makes it more work than its worth for general operating. like if youre just doing fm through a repeater you dont really want to be rotating a yagi every time someone new checks in. been at this for about three years so not totally new to vhf but never actually used a yagi in the field, only at home on a fixed mast.

anyone gone through this same decision and figured out which direction made more sense for their style of operating

yeah i went through exactly this about two years ago. ended up keeping both in the kit honestly. the collinear stays on the pole the whole time for fm/repeater stuff and the yagi comes out when i want to work weak signal or when somebody is really on the edge. the arrow dual band is pretty light so its not a huge deal to throw it in the bag. the thing people dont tell you about using a yagi for repeater work is that multipath can actually get worse on some paths if youre right at the edge of a ridge, the null from the pattern can bite you. for ssb and digital weak signal stuff though its a completely different situation, the yagi makes a massive difference. if your activations are mostly fm repeater contacts i probably wouldnt bother, but if you ever want to get into vhf contesting or even just working the occasional ssb dx from a hilltop the yagi is worth every ounce.

the x50 is a solid antenna and honestly underrated for portable use. i tried bringing a 7 el yagi up a hill one time and by the time i got to the top i was so winded from carrying all the pieces that i just wanted to go home lol. depends a lot on how far you're walking and how much you care about the extra contacts. if your paths are line of sight to the repeater anyway the collinear is probably fine and the gain difference wont matter much in practice.