so ive been running a diamond X50 on my roof for about two years now and generally pretty happy with it, hits most of the local repeaters fine. but theres one machine about 65 miles out that i can only barely scratch on a good day, mostly when the weather cooperates which obviously isnt a real solution.

someone at the club suggested i try a yagi pointed that direction instead of sticking with the omni. which makes sense on paper but then im giving up coverage on everything else unless i add a second antenna and some kind of switch setup. my mast already has the X50 and a 70cm colinear on it and theres not a ton of room to work with. the roof situation is also kind of a pain, its a steep pitch and my wife already thinks im insane for what i have up there.

has anyone actually done this comparison like real world, not just on paper? is the gain from a 5 or 6 element yagi actually worth the tradeoff for day to day use, or am i better off trying to squeeze more height somehow and sticking with the omni setup. the repeater in question is on a pretty good hilltop so its not a terrain issue on that end i think.

yeah the yagi will absolutely smoke the collinear for that one path, no contest. a 6 element 2m yagi is going to get you somewhere around 10 dBd which is a massive difference compared to the maybe 4-5 dBd you're getting from the X50. but you already know the problem - you lose the omnidirectional coverage and now you need a rotator or you're just fixed pointed at that one machine.

what i'd actually do in your situation is just run both. coax switch at the radio end, yagi fixed-pointed at the distant repeater on a separate small mast or even a bracket off the chimney or something. dont overthink the mast space thing, a small push-up mast for a yagi doesnt need to be huge. M2 makes decent affordable yagis for 2m and they go together easy. you could also look at the Arrow or a homebrew if youre feeling adventurous. the fixed yagi approach works great for a specific path you use regularly, just keep the omni for everything else and switch as needed.

i had almost the exact same problem trying to hit a repeater about 50 miles out and ended up just going with a taller mast and keeping my collinear. gained maybe 15 feet of height and it made more of a difference than i expected honestly. not saying the yagi idea is wrong but sometimes the simple fix works and you dont have to deal with switching and aiming and all that. depends how bad you need that one machine i guess.