Over the last few days, I have been trying to hit some repeaters from my house with my HTs. While there are about fourteen repeaters within 25 or so miles, I found I could only really hit four of them. Out of those four, only a single one was really good, which considering it's only maybe three miles from me, is not too surprising.
One of the things that makes this difficult is that we have a lot of hills and mountains that could be blocking signals. While a chunk of the repeaters were on on the mountains, I may have something in the way.
All of this has lead me to believe that a much better antenna is going to be a good call. I am not sure what antenna I will do yet. I have a few thoughts. I may do a a simple vertical dipole since that seems pretty simple to make. Perhaps even a J-pole for 70 cm, as I am not sure the wife would be down with me doing a 2 meter J-pole, might be too big or ugly for her.
At any rate, it does mean I will need some supplies before I can even test a new antenna.
On a side note, I'd also be down with a small mobile rig. These are the days I wish I still had the D710 I use to have.