so ive been doing these hilltop activations for a while now, mostly 2m SSB and some 70cm when conditions are decent, and im trying to figure out if its worth dragging a yagi up there versus just sticking with my collinear. right now im using a diamond X50 which is fine for local stuff but it feels like i'm leaving gain on the table when i'm up at elevation with good takeoff angles in all directions

the thing is with a yagi you gotta know where you're pointing it and on a windy hilltop thats not always easy, and if i want to work stations in different directions i'm constantly rotating it by hand. been looking at a 9 element M2 for 2m but the boom length is getting into awkward territory for hiking in.

anyone actually done this comparison in a real portable context, not just on paper? curious if the extra gain is actually noticeable in practice or if the elevation itself is doing most of the heavy lifting

yeah i went through this exact thing a couple years ago. ended up with a 5 element yagi on a short boom, think it was a WA5VJB cheapie I built myself, and honestly the gain difference over a collinear is night and day on 2m SSB when you're pointed the right direction. the key word there being pointed. if you're doing a fixed sked with someone you know where they are and its fine but just calling CQ and spinning it around by hand gets old fast.

what i eventually settled on is bringing both. collinear stays up on the mast for FM and general calling, yagi comes out when i find a direction worth working. adds maybe 10 minutes to setup but you get the best of both. the elevation does help a ton but there's no substitute for real gain when you're trying to pull out a weak SSB signal 200 miles out

for hiking i just use a jpole i made from ladder line, rolls up and weighs nothing. probably not what you want to hear but once you factor in the weight and awkwardness of a long yagi boom on a trail i just couldnt justify it personally. that said im mostly doing FM and APRS not SSB so my requirements are pretty different i guess