So ive been running a Diamond X50 on my roof for a couple years now and it does fine for most things but ive been thinking about throwing up a yagi for 2m. The thing is I dont really do any serious DX, mostly just the local repeaters, some simplex with a buddy about 35 miles out, and occasionally I check into a couple nets. So I keep going back and forth on whether a yagi actually makes sense for my situation or if im just chasing specs I dont need.

The X50 gets me into everything I need most days but theres this one repeater about 55 miles away that I can only hit when conditions are decent and that bugs me. I figured a yagi pointed that direction might fix it but then id lose the omnidirectional coverage and have to either rotate it or just accept im giving up one direction for another. Anybody dealt with this kind of tradeoff? Is there some middle ground im not thinking of, like a longer collinear or something? The roof situation isnt terrible, I could probably get away with a small rotator but that feels like a lot of effort for occasional use.

Honestly for what you're describing a longer collinear might be the smarter move before going yagi. Something like a Diamond X200 or even a Comet GP-9 if you can mount it high enough — the extra gain over the X50 is real and you keep your omni pattern. The GP-9 is around 9.5 dBd claimed, which in practice after you factor in feedline and mount losses still usually gets you a couple dB over what you have. That 55 mile repeater might just come in with a better antenna and a lower angle of radiation.

That said if you really want to nail that one path, a small 5 or 6 el yagi on a cheap TV rotator isnt crazy. I ran a Cushcraft A147-11 like that for a while and it was great but I got annoyed having to point it every time I wanted to work different directions. Eventually took it down and just went back to the collinear. Your mileage may vary but it sounds like your use case doesnt really need the yagi complexity.

yeah i had almost the exact same setup dilemma last year. ended up stacking two jpoles about 5 feet apart which was kind of a weird experiment but it actually helped a bit on the low angles. probably not worth the effort compared to just buying a better antenna though lol. the rotator thing sounds fun until you actually have to deal with it in the middle of winter