How do you use the RH770 with a handheld, do you just hold it in your hand and wave it about?
Only if you want to stress and break the socket on the handy.
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That answers my question I think. It is connected directly to the handheld?
Yes, connected directly.
I only attach immediately before calling cq, and then remove as soon as finished. I carry a second flexible antenna for use while mobile.
I had not thought of using it any other way actually…but perhaps some sort of base mounting placed atop a summit cairn of trig point would work.
The 10m of RG58 on the tail of the slim Jim reduce the power from 5W at the transceiver to around 3.5W at the antenna, so perhaps this negates any intrinsic advantage relative to the RH770.
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Great report and photos. Again thanks.
73 de Geoff vk3sq
PS…what is your name?
Who is on first? 
For my first activation I used a 2m half-wave mobile whip complete with mag mount on a biscuit tin lid, perched on a rock. It worked a treat!
Very well done, especially with the cycling! Dale Head from Honister would have been stretching a different set of leg muscles.
I got you on Dale Head which means the telescopic whip is working well. I won’t go over old ground with the pole/Slim-G versus telescopic whip other than to say that they both seem to work very well. The Slim-G comes into it’s own where you can get shelter, otherwise the RH770 is much more convenient. I still use a combination of both, typically using the Slim-G when I am taking a pole for HF.
Mark.
Ultimately, I find more benefits in using the supplied rubber duck with my handheld than a supposedly better alternative.
If I want to be tethered to a proper antenna, I have my 817 in my rucksack for that - so the handheld can remain for use as an actual handheld while walking.
The supplied antenna is designed to snugly fit the radio and preserves any water-resistant properties much better.
Connections just inside the radio beneath the connector on handhelds can fail - so attaching / removing helicals and alternatives are best kept to a minimum.
My Yaesu FT70D gives amazing performance on both RX and TX with the supplied rubber duck too. So with the points noted above, I’ll stick with the RD.
Why so much lossy coax?
The pole is 7m, plus a bit extra to reach across to a tent or summit shelter.
I’m considering trying LMR-195 as an alternative to RG-58. Not sure about flexibility. I really like the crimp connectors I can get from RS components, and their fit, so am keen to try those with a better cable. I also don’t want to consider cable that is any heavier, RG-58 adds up to a significant load with enough metres.
Please let me know before I make a purchase if you’ve had experience of LMR-195 and it isn’t suitable for SOTA activities.
It’s stiff enough that they do LMR-195UF (ultra flex) that is 33% more expensive. If I was buying then I’d go for that. The problem is the reduction in loss is not very much. Yes, I know every bit matters but will it be noticeable?
Maybe what you want to do is take say your 10m length of RG58 and cut it at say 6m and fit a plug, then fit plugs on the 4m bit but use on female BNC and one male. Then you can use the 6m piece normally and when in a setup where you need more length, such as having to get out of wind into a shelter, add the 4m piece on. That will nearly halve the loss in the feeder for all the times where you can use a shorter piece. And when you can’t use the shorter length, you’ll be back to where you were before (maybe with a tadge more loss in the connectors).
Choose lengths to use your pole/antenna setup etc. so maybe 7/3 is a better cutting guide. It will only cost you a couple of crimp on connectors.
Ideally you need to keep your eyes peeled for any time you see dudes working on cell sites. If you do, mosey on over to them (obey Covid rules etc.) and ask them if they have any offcuts or scrap bits of cable. You may find them more than happy to let some gimp clean up the trash instead of them 
If you do it right you find might find yourself like me: the proud owner of 26.5m of brand new Andrew FSJ 4-50 and the special connectors that were surplus to the job, worth about £350 I reckon. It’s used for contesting not SOTA as it weighs a few kilos!
Tom, I know you have debated this before on at least one other SOTA thread.
When you say [provocatively IMO] “supposedly better alternative” I assume you are not contesting that many [perhaps most] HT-mounting 2m antennas have better performance than the stock rubber duck but rather [putting words in your mouth] that the benefit of convenience [in your case] outweighs the performance improvement of the alternative.
In which case, I would say that depends on your activating location and whether or not you would like some interesting Dx as well as local chasers.
In my experience, I probably could qualify G/NP and G/SP summits with a rubber duck [being located close to large urban conurbations] even though I activate only on work days and during the day. I would be pushed to qualify many of the 1-6-pointer summits in my region [G/LD] with a rubber duck on those days and time of day.
P.S. I don’t care to monitor the call frequency whilst walking. I prefer to focus on the walk and do the radio bit at the summit.
73 Andy
I try to pitch my 6m pole right next to me / the tent / the tarp. I feel inhibited putting up an HF antenna anywhere near a summit shelter unless nobody else is there or I think unlikely to come.
I’ll do VHF/UHF in a shelter. That’s where the quick-to-deploy RH770 comes in handy. But I’ll switch the audio from the HT speaker to an earphone / mic if any one shows up.
I am taking the holistic stance. My current handheld functions superbly with the supplied RD. So good that I find no need to seek marginal gains that risk increase in wear-and-tear and reductions in water-resistance and convenience.
No provocation intended.
I wonder what you mean by “superbly”, Tom? Probably that it reliably allows you to qualify the summit with a number of contacts that satisfy you.
Speaking as a chaser, I find handheld activations frustrating, to me, anything that extends the range of a handheld can only be a good thing. From my fairly average location and using a three-band colinear with a claimed 6dB gain on 2m I can expect to work activations using handies on just eight or so summits, with several more that need lift conditions before I can hear a handy. This presupposes that the activators aren’t down a little on the opposite side of the summit, I’ve been unable to work activators on my nearest summit if they’ve dropped down a little on the far side. Yes, I’m sure that some of you are thinking “what’s he talking about, I have worked chasers over 100 km away”, but you need a clear path. VHF DX has always favoured those with good locations, this is the core reason why so many abandoned VHF after the end of the “B” licence. The “haves” stayed, the “have-nots” left.
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I worked Frank MW0OFA in Pembrokeshire a few times with the handheld and rubber duck, on 2m FM, from The Cloud G/SP-015. That goes into the “superb” category AFAIAC. I’ve worked across to Grantham like that, got Phil OBK in North Yorkshire, the South Lakes and the IOM. Fair enough, condx might have been “a bit up” for those, but HH+RD does me a 80 mile radius in flat condx, and a healthy logbook. You must be the only remaining amateur in the West Midlands not to have worked me on it Brian 
Exactly the reply I was expecting, Tom!
Of course HH+RD gets you an 80 mile radius in flat condx, but I bet that none of those that you worked at 80 miles were living in valleys or the wrong side of hills! It comes down to the basics. With a HH+RD you cream off the best located and the best equipped stations at 80m, add some output, more power or a gainier antenna, and those with poorer locations or less gainy antennas will hear you within that 80m, while “beacon” stations further away will now get you. IOW, because you can work 80m it doesn’t mean that you can work everybody within 80m. As I say, basics, it isn’t the virtue of the HH or RD, its just the way things work.
Both activators and chasers need to make a bit more of an effort if they want/need more/further/better contacts. As an activator, I regularly get really good results operating with HH and RD. But if I want even more, I use the 817, a beam, mixture of modes (FM, C4FM, CW, SSB, FT8) and/or operate during contests.
As a chaser, I don’t do particularly well from the home QTH. When I was much keener on SOTA chasing back in the early days, that “bit more of an effort” was driving up to a local high point for some /M operating. Nowadays, I’m more likely to actually head for a summit if there’s activations I’m keen to chase, and try to get them S2S.
A VHF handie is such an obvious and natural option for a hillwalking amateur, so they’ll always be these kind of activations.