so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and cant really make up my mind. im doing a fair bit of hilltop portable operating, mostly 2m and 70cm, mix of SSB weak signal stuff and hitting the local repeaters when im out hiking. right now i just throw up a jpole or a slim jim on a painters pole and it works okay but i keep thinking theres gotta be something better for the weak signal side of things.

the question is whether a small yagi — thinking maybe a 5 element on 2m — is actually worth hauling up a hill versus just getting a decent gain collinear that i could leave up all the time and use for both voice and weak signal. i know the yagi is gonna kill it for pointing at a specific station but when youre doing portable you dont always know exactly who youre gonna work or from which direction. collinear keeps the omnidirectional pattern which seems more practical.

anyone been through this same kind of decision? i dont mind building something if thats the better way to go, ive made a few wire antennas before but never a yagi from scratch.

honestly for hilltop portable weak signal work the yagi wins pretty much every time in my experience. yeah the omni is convenient but youre leaving a LOT of gain on the table with a collinear, and gain on the receive side is where it really matters for SSB. a 5 el on 2m is maybe 7-8 dBd which sounds like not much until you realize thats like the difference between copying someone and not copying them at all.

the size and weight is also not as bad as people think. a 5 el 2m yagi built on a fiberglass boom can be pretty light, M2 makes one thats telescoping i think, or you can look at the Arrow dual band yagis which are pretty popular for portable. ive seen guys haul way bigger stuff up hills. if youre doing SSB specifically you kinda need the directional pattern anyway because youre gonna be hunting for contacts and you want to know where signals are coming from. the collinear is great for repeater access but for weak signal dx it just doesnt make much sense to me.

i went through exactly this last year. ended up getting an arrow 2m/70cm yagi and honestly its fine for what you described, packs down pretty small and the dual band thing is handy. though i'll admit for pure 2m SSB performance its not like a dedicated 2m yagi would be, its a compromise. but for portable use the convenience factor counts for a lot.

one thing nobody mentioned — if youre mainly hiking to summits and doing SOTA activations or whatever, you probably also want to think about your radio's battery weight before agonizing too much over the antenna. ive definitely been the guy at the top of a hill with a great antenna and a half dead battery because i optimized the wrong thing lol