so ive been doing some hilltop activations lately mostly on 2m and 70cm and right now im just using a roll up jpole which works fine honestly but i keep wondering if im leaving signal on the table. the sites i go to usually have decent elevation, maybe 800-1100 feet above the surrounding terrain, so theoretically a yagi should do a lot better for working distant stations but then again i mostly just do local nets and occasional FM simplex so i dont know if its worth the extra setup time

the yagi i was looking at is a 5 element dual band from directive systems, seen a few people use those at contests and they seem solid. but the thing is im usually solo and setting up a mast, getting the feedline routed, making sure the thing isnt gonna blow over in the wind — it adds like 20 minutes easy vs just hanging the jpole in a tree

anyone actually done a comparison on the same hilltop with both? like real world not just theoretical gain numbers. curious what the difference actually feels like in terms of who you can reach

yeah i went through this exact same thing last summer. had a 6 element yagi i built from a design in the ARRL handbook and an Arrow dual band jpole and honestly at my usual hilltop the yagi was noticeably better for anything beyond maybe 40 miles. inside that range both were totally fine. the thing is a yagi on 2m really starts to shine when you're trying to hit a distant repeater or work a station that's just barely in the noise — like you can actually pull them out and have a real QSO instead of just barely acknowledging each other exist

that said i eventually switched to just bringing a small mast and a lightweight 3 element yagi i made from a tape measure, the classic fox hunting design. weighs almost nothing, sets up in like 5 minutes if you're practiced at it, and gives me enough gain for most hilltop work. the directive systems stuff is good but it might be more antenna than you need for casual activations unless youre specifically trying to work weak signal or rover stuff

not to derail but have you tried a collinear instead of the jpole? im running a diamond x50 on my go-kit mast and it seems noticeably better than my old jpole on receive at least. still omnidirectional so you dont have to aim it which is nice when youre just hanging out on a summit and dont know where people are gonna call from. probably not as good as a yagi for point to point but way less hassle for general use