Is a Yagi what I need?

[kq4pug]

It's all about location, location, location. The antennas you have are perfectly capable of hitting that repeater, IF there aren't any obstructions between you and the repeater. If there's a substantial hill, mountain, or buildings in the way, then a Yagi isn't going to help much either.

I live in a part of San Diego that is up on a plateau with unobstructed views in all directions. For years I used a Comet GP-1 antenna and could consistently hit Mount Laguna at 47 miles, Mount Palomar at 41 miles , Catalina Island at 88 miles and Signal Hill (Long Beach) at 95 miles. Granted, Catalina and Signal Hill are mostly over water, but I have coverage for a lot of other repeaters in the area.

I must agree, I had to move my 25ft GP9 3 times in my yard to find the sweet spot. ANYTHING between you and the repeater can lower your signal. VHF signals reflect off of everything. I pick up a repeater 35mi away and I can find a few places at ground level with an HT with full quieting using signals bouncing off of the top of pine trees. But my goal was to find a location at 30ft elevation, where it worked just as well, in additional to all other repeaters in other directions. The same antenna now has excellent performance and picks up the repeater just fine whereas just 20 ft away, the performance was bad.

Experiment with different locations. After my 2nd failure to get the repeater well with my GP9, I waited for a net and while people were on the air, I used a small GP3 on a tall pole and found the best location that way, which was 20ft away. Fortunately it was also the best location for all other repeaters as well. Just moving the antenna made a HUGE difference.