[Bluzman]

It depends on your dwelling. If your in a house, the sky's the limit.
Get a big VHF/UHF combo antenna and rotating mast. You can do the booster thing in the house if the antenna doesn't do the job.

If your in an apartment your limited to Rabbit Ear technology.

 

[Washington D.C.]

Boosters can cause more trouble than help sometimes.The larger the antenna the directional it is.If you install it with a rotor you dial in on each channel,but they are often all in the same direction,in which case you wouldn't want to spend money on an antenna rotor.Just get it aimed and leave it in the direction.Don't try for too much height.Just enough to clear the house and aim the antenna.Get the largest antenna you can find but be aware that larger will be more sensitive to direction.

 

[SomeGuyInAHat]

Use www.antennaweb.org to figure out what type of antenna you need, and then order one from www.solidsignal.com.

 

[Nolyn]

Great info guys, thanks

I ended up purchasing a Philips set top unit with 50db gain. Here's hoping.

That site says I should be able to get about 50 stations - just getting around 5 at the moment

 

[Washington D.C.]

Oh a top set model!!!The best going now I think is marketed by Phillips and another brand name.It looks very modern like an arrow shape.

 

[Nolyn]

Ah yes, the Samsung looked like an arrow. I opted for the phillips because it had more gain for about the same price.

I have a large pole outside, so I could run with an outside one mounted 35 to 30 feet off the ground. Just don't fancy hangin around out there. Hoping the indoor one works adequately (have had good indoor results before.

 

[Washington D.C.]

What I did was install a small outdoor antenna in the attic.I thought you might be so far from the TV towers that an indoor wouldn't work for you.My grandmother lived way out and the local government had cable TV installed there 30 years ago for $2 a month as public service because broadcast TV couldn't be picked by antenna.

 

[Nolyn]

I'm about 20 miles from the towers, but no hills or buildings between me and them. Without any antenna I get a couple of stations with interference. An old antenna is not much improvement, but the new breed of antennas with boosters seem to do a good job, so I should be able to get at least 7 stations very clear when my new one arrives.

Only other way to improve is to climp the pole and put up an outdoor one.

I don't like satelite because it goes out when the weather is bad, and we don't get cable here either.

the project continues

 

[fastvfr]

That's not right.

I have set up many satellite TV systems in my day, and the main ways weather interferes with the signal is either by not having been solidly in the footprint in the first place (out of alignment) or has collected a layer of snow or ice.

A spritz with WD-40 or something before the storm will usually prevent this from happening.

The problem could have been with the box, too.

Hope this helps, but, if not, satellite is the way to go.

Try a different company, maybe.

 

[Nolyn]

Yeah, we initially had DirecTV, and if there was a thunder storm with 20 miles it would go off - usually for quite a long time. We recently had Dish Network, and it was far less sensitive to thunderstorm outages. The storm needed to be within about two miles, and the picture quality would degrade, then when the storm was within about a mile it would go off altogether. Outage duration was short with this system, but still a pain (we've had a lot of storms this year)

I can now get a better deal from DirecTV than I can from Dish, so I'm just hoping that they have improved their system. I will use the antenna to get local news (cheaper than paying $3 per month to have this via satelite)