On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:47:55 -0700, Joey wrote:

Hi,
I'm trying to determine if I could use 10 meters to contact a station
about 75 miles away

Hi Joey,

That's hit number one, distance at this wavelength.

with about 2500ft elevation of a couple sets of
hills in between

That's hit number two with the terrain against you.

with just simple antennas on either end.

That's hit number three, antennas without gain.

Perhaps a
10m dipole on one end and some kind of stealthy one on the other.

That's hit number four, every possibility of being cross polarized,
and with at least one antenna masked by building or foliage to qualify
as "stealthy."

I
assume this would have to be ground wave only given the distance and
current band conditions.

You might try NVIS, but what you say, as follows, doesn't give you
many band options.

My parents are both techs so we're currrently limited to parts of 10m
as the lowest band

It's time to upgrade. Consult the new rule changes, take a practice
test, and see what happens.

and I'd like to have something reliable without
need repeaters for disaster comms.

Then you really need to stop rationalizing about having a "stealth"
antenna. If this was Hurricane Katrina, how long can you call CQ
under water?

We actually only have a few single
hop VHF/UHF repeaters between us, though quite a few linked ones.
I've also thought of 6m due to smaller antenna requirements, but I'm
pretty sure this is too far...

Try it first before giving up.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC