Take a look at antennaweb.org for good info about direction and distance to your stations. I'm 40 miles from the stations in my area. I was getting good HD reception with an old VHF/UHF antenna. It was looking pretty beat-up after the hurricanes, so I got a new HD two-panel bow-tie type antenna. That works fine also, but I think it is more directional. My antenna is on the 2nd story roof, with pretty clear terrain.
Rotors are a pain, and they usually stop working after a while. You might just try rabbit ears, or a piece of wire. I tried an indoor dipole -- just the FM antenna that comes with stereo receivers, and I got several digital channels with that! It is possible to put up two antennas with a combiner so that you get signals from two directions simultaneously. (A combiner is a splitter in reverse.) I put up my antenna myself. It just depends on how comfortable you are climbing on the roof, etc. Using new, high-quality coax is important. Amplifiers may do more harm than good. Don't get one until you try your system without it. Good luck. --- In [email protected], "morningglorydesigns" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Because our antenna (and amps?)was damaged in a hurricane Isabel and > we no longer get local stations well, we considered going to small > dish or cable. However, we decided that we want to keep the 4DTV and > replace the antenna. I realize that these antenna questions are not > directly related to C-Band, but for most of us with C-band, our > systems involve having an antenna for local channels. > > Is it better to have an antenna professionally installed or are the > results of installing it yourself usually good? My husband was not > able to loosen and turn our present antenna because it has been on > top of our house for 13 years. We had it installed with our C-band > system. We have a 2 story house and the antenna is at the edge of a > gable. > > There are supposed to be 3 amps or boosters, but my husband has not > been able to find them. Is it best just to replace the whole system? > I don't want to spennd unnecessary money, but I want to be happy > with the results. > > We are 40 miles from Washington DC and 65 miles from Richmond. We > have an omni-directional antenna and focused on the DC channels. Is > it expensive or complicated to add a rotor? > > Comment on pizza dish and cable: They advertise lots of channels, > but to get the simple programming we want (like DIY, SCI, HGTV), > we'd have to get an expensive package. Truthfully, looking at the > Dish Network 100+ package made me angry. Most of the 100 channels > were useless. With either pizza dish or cable, we'd have to pay ~$60 > a month. Although they have a couple of sports channels we'd like, > it's not worth switching - and I feel like they arrange their > packages so that you pretty much have to get an expensive plan to > get anything good. > > Serena >
