There are very few FM repeaters left in Estonia. And those that are still operating show little traffic. But when propagation is good, especially in the summer, I can hear OMs chatting on ES4RVB (which is probably still the most used repeater here). But ES4RVB is far away, in Tamsalu on the mainland, about 182km. I began to wonder if a directional antenna, say a yagi, would make the difference in getting into the repeater.
This is still experimental: being an HF guy, I couldn't find enough coax cable for VHF in the shack, so I put up a vertical 7-element yagi in the garden, which I could operate from the sauna. The antenna is up, but the last days showed very strong winds and I couldn't operate it. But I'm intrigued.
On 2 m, I'm mostly an FM user with QRP and omnidirectional antennas, happy to reach stations 70 km away.
But I know better. I know these diagrams. VHF path loss as a function of distance.
Those diagrams tell stories of 400 km and more being bridgeable with high-end stations on a daily basis, without elevated conditions helping.
Little known fact: There's a sweet region ~170-200 dB where each few dB additional path loss tolerable increase coverage big way.
Have fun, @es0mhi ! 
