so ive been going back and forth on this for a while now and figured id just ask here. i have a decent location, second floor of a two story house, maybe 25ft above ground level if i add a mast, and im trying to decide whether to go with a collinear omnidirectional setup or just point a yagi at the repeater i use most and call it good.

the repeater im hitting is about 18 miles out and i can reach it fine on a handheld from the backyard so its not like im desperate, but i want something permanent and a bit more capable. theres also one other repeater about 90 degrees off to the right that id like to be able to hit on occasion. the problem with the yagi obviously is the fixed direction thing unless i build some kind of rotator setup which feels like overkill for 2m repeater work.

anyone run a decent collinear on a fixed mount and been happy with it? or am i overthinking this and just need to put up a 5/8 wave vertical and be done with it

for what youre describing honestly a collinear makes more sense. something like a Diamond X50 or X200 will serve you well for hitting multiple repeaters without having to think about it. the gain isnt dramatic compared to a yagi obviously but for 18 miles on 2m with a clear shot youre not going to need a 13 element beam anyway.

the rotator idea isnt as crazy as it sounds if you ever get into weak signal or satellite work down the road, but for everyday repeater use its just more stuff to break. ive had an X200A on my roof for probably 8 years now and the only time i think about it is when i have to climb up there and clear ice. put it up high, good coax, solid mount and forget about it.

yeah what he said. also worth mentioning that feedline is going to matter more than people expect at VHF. if you put up a nice collinear and run like 50ft of RG-58 youre going to wonder why it doesnt work as well as you hoped. LMR-400 or at least LMR-240 if the run isnt too long. i made that mistake when i first set up my station and spent way too long blaming the antenna before i figured out my coax was garbage