New to Antennas

[Ezer]

Hello,

I have been reading through these forums and to be honest I am a little confused with the technical stuff. I would like to get hdtv from an antenna as I dont want to pay for cable anymore. I dont mind making an investment in a good antenna that will last me for some time. My main concern is that I do live in a homeowners association but I think I could mount a outdoor one off the roof and it not be seen from the street. Most likely I will have to do and indoor one or an attic antenna.
From my tv fool report here http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d9fbeb3d90ac9aa It seems I can have an indoor and get hdtv channels like fox abc nbc and cbs. Is that correct or do I need to get the channels in the red zone for that.
I am sorry I am not very technical person and never had an antenna before, but I would appreciate any help at all.

thank you.

[Dave Loudin]

Figuring out what type of antenna you need is really not hard once you know what information you need to look for and what advertising claims are just empty words. ;) The good news is you've got the tool (your TVFool report) that shows in detail what your antenna requirements are.

You supplied your location and a projected antenna height (in this case, looks like the default 10 feet). What the report gives you is:

1) what channels your stations broadcast on (the "real channel" column),
2) how strong those stations are with respect to the minimum needed for reception (the NM column), and
3) what direction(s) the stations are coming from.

Two good pieces of good news make your situation pretty easy to deal with. First, all the stations that are practical to pick up come from one direction. Second, all the Network and Independent stations you would want have noise margins over +40dB (trust me, that's a lot!). It is likely that you could use an indoor antenna and the Terk HDTVi would be the best.

A couple things that don't show in a propagation analysis that could compromise using an indoor antenna. Will the antenna have to look through a nearby house? a lot of trees? several walls in your house? Not seeing your detailed situation (and don't worry about telling me about them), I believe you would be better off mounting a small antenna outside (which you have the legal right to do). The RCA ANT-751 would be an excellent choice. If you absolutely have to mount in the attic, I would recommend a slightly larger antenna, like the AntennaCraft HBU-33 or the Winegard 7694.

One thing you will definitely NOT need is a preamp or amplified antenna. Do not waste your money on such things. The Terk model I mentioned is not amplified.

[Ezer]

Thanks Dave for the helpful information. I really appreciate it. I went ahead and purchased the rca ant751 that you suggested. Installed it today with no problems and I am getting all the network channels plus about 50 or so more. I am going to go through all of them and see which ones are the furthest away just for fun.

Well, thanks again. It was very nice to visit a forum with informative and kind people. I know alot of forums dont like to help noobs so I am very appreciative.

Ezer

[Dave Loudin]

I'm really glad that worked.