so ive been going back and forth on this for a while now and figured id just ask here because i keep going in circles reading old threads. basically i do a lot of portable ops from hilltops, sometimes SOTA sometimes just messing around on 2m and 70cm, and im trying to figure out if a dual band yagi is actually worth the hassle over just bringing a decent collinear like a diamond x50 or something in that range.

the yagi obviously gives me way more gain in one direction which is great when im trying to hit a specific repeater or work someone a county or two over, but breaking it down and setting it up every time is kind of a pain, especially if im only up there for an hour or so. the collinear just screws on and works, omnidirectional obviously, which is nice when i dont know exactly where traffic is coming from.

im running an FT-60 handheld most of the time, occasionally the IC-2730 if i bring the car up close. anyone switched from one approach to the other and regret it or found a setup that sorta splits the difference? also curious if the gain figures on the cheap yagis from the usual online sellers are anywhere close to real or if its all marketing fluff

been doing hilltop stuff for probably 12 years now and honestly the answer kind of depends on what youre actually trying to do up there. if its mostly just rag chewing and hitting local repeaters, the collinear wins every time — low hassle, decent gain over a rubber duck, and you can rotate your body if you need to aim anything. but the moment you want to actually work weak signal or do any kind of simplex link over real distance the yagi just isnt comparable, theres no contest.

the cheap yagis from amazon and the gray market sites are usually not horrible but the gain claims are definitely optimistic. a 5 element 2m yagi isnt giving you 12dbd, thats just not happening. something like the Arrow or even a homemade one from the ARRL handbook will outperform most of the cheap imports on actual pattern and front-to-back. ive built a few from aluminum rod and they break down pretty small actually, worth looking into if the portability thing is the main concern

i just take both lol. collinear goes up first, if i need more punch in a direction i swap. the Arrow 2m/70cm yagi fits in my pack no problem, its not that heavy. the setup time is like 2 minutes once you do it a few times. with an HT youre gonna be noise-limited more than anything else anyway so the extra gain from even a modest yagi makes a real difference compared to obsessing over which collinear to buy