Unless I’m not looking in the right place, genuine Diamond RH-770 are like hen’s teeth. Do any of you have the RH-205 and if so, how do you find it?
73 Steve
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I found the same when I tried to buy a second one. I ended up getting a couple from AliExpress.
Radio world currently have the SMA male version in stock.
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Respect!
Yes, I have a genuine one with BNC and SMA Male one arrives tomorrow from Radio World. Really hard to get the real thing
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Prefer the BNC. I’ll see if I can get one at the National Hamfest tomorrow, although I don’t hold out much hope. If none are available I’ll try the RH205, although at 134cm, it’s a bit of a long monster.
73 Steve
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Hi Ian,
You’ve asked readers a few times to pick one of your 3 options, but if, like me, I don’t understand why them, they may be reluctant to pick one.
From the short lengths of your coax feeders the pole can only be about 1-2m high (allowing for horizontal run). Are you wanting to sit / lie in your tarp / tent (out of the rain) and have the antenna outside?
IMO, there are two classic 2m FM operating modes:
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standing up with HT/RH770 in one hand (quickest one to deploy / pack away), and
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sitting in chair, hunkered down in heather / hole, in tarp / tent with a roll-up slim-jim or j-pole on 6m pole with 1-2m of RG174. The roll-up types are very lightweight and pack down to a small volume.
If you’re going to the faff of putting a VHF antenna on a pole, make it a taller pole to improve your VHF coverage.
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Did I read Slighly Crag and “on the next visit” in the same sentence? My kit could have weighed -20Kg and I still wouldn’t be tempted! 73 Paul
… PS J Pole up 6m mast with a backup RH 770 seems to work for me and the J Pole gets better reports but that is probably due to being 6m in the air!
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I forget now but I got mine from Wimo or Passion Radio and it was genuine.
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For once I agree with you Andy! Spot on.
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Ah, at the risk of seeming to disagree with you Richard, we have actually agreed more than once [We just remember the disagreements - confirmation bias at work]. 
I don’t care much for emojis but even my long-suffering wife says she can’t always tell when I’m joking esp. my dead pan or deliberately ambiguous humour
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Good luck!
Its a great summit! Weather is always rubbish, its remote and a peat bog of a hill! Best route is up the fence from the fire break. Its a lot of work for 2 points (5 in winter) but I’ve learned a good deal about SOTA from doing it, twice! The profile picture of me in a tarp in the snow was taken in February this year!
Thank you, this is a helpful answer. I was pushing for more insight into how to get more out of the HH with a light, simple to deploy antenna and it worked! I’ve received a lot of helpful stuff.
IMO, I think there are more than two, which I outlined in my reply to G4AZS.
See Below
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Me too. The rh-770 is convenient to use but very inconvenient to log with. Slim-G more weight and kit, but easy to log.
Performance wise, there’s no noticeable difference.
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I’ve noticed on a few summits (especially ones with higher hills around) I had to resort to putting up the j-pole on a 6m pole to get enough QSOs to qualify the activation. I doubt the j-pole was any better than the RH770; it was the extra height that made the difference. Normally the RH770 mounted on the HT is more than adequate.
Sometimes when crouching down (eg to write in the log) with my HT/RH770, chasers told me my signal strength improved after I stood up. It appears even a bit of extra height above the ground can make a difference for the more dx 2m contacts.
BTW: my roll-up j-pole and 2m of extension coax in plastic bag weighs 159g. Of course the pole is not included.
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I use a stand and external mic. I have made one similar for my FT65 with a hole for a tent peg to secure it
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I like the RH770 but I’ve never tried using it to log.
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All over Katsushika-ku, salesmen are looking at that photo hoping lots of people will copy you and sales of new handhelds to replace those with broken antenna sockets will boom in time for Christmas. 
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Not to mention the connections to the PCB, which are also not designed for the force exerted on the pcb and soldered joints from a long and relatively heavy antenna.
There has been only minor mention of the impact of a ground plane on radio performance. Normally HTs are operated with a quarter wave or more of conductor above the connection to the radio. The radio is presumed to be sufficiently efficient as a replacement ground plane, but in fact adding just one quarter wave wire to the connector improves its efficiency noticeably. But most HTs operate with the PCB of the radio as its only ground plane. In turn the radio’s PCB is loaded by a non-resonant water filled container on one side and an outer appendage of the operator on the other, neither of which make for a loss-free ground plane effect. The case of the radio is plastic and is of no value at all in terms of ground planes.
Working dx with the standard setup is indeed a miracle when it happens at all.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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I share your concern 
that’s why I 3d printed a load spreader for the FT65. The original Diamond SRH770 that I used on the FT1D comes with various spacers to act as load spreaders.
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