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Old 18-Aug-2011, 5:42 AM   #1
Rich
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 20
Northern Colorado Antenna: Loveland/Fort Collins

Hi,

Like many others, we are ditching satellite. We will get most programming online but want to get local news. We also want to keep the cost of this as low as is reasonably possible. Also, and this is a big one, my wife is not thrileed with this change and so this needs to be easy to use and realiable for her.

The station we are most interested in (KUSA) is in Denver, which is about 50 miles south of us. Our 2 TVs are old and not digital ready so we have ordered a DTA box (Zinwell ZAT-970A) to try this out. (it has not yet arrived) We may also replace one TV with a small new, digital one.

I need help with the antenna end of things. Like I said, we are about 50 miles north of Denver. Here is my analysis:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9e74f3530b4b71

While both Loveland and Denver are both on the plains along the Front Range, there are still a lot of hills in 50 miles.

To start, I have purchased a Mohu Leaf antenna; it arrived today. However, after doing some more reading, given the distance and teh hilly terrain, I am not sure it is going to work. In the event it does not, or if the reception is poor or unreliable, I would consider putting an antenna in one of our attics. The preferred one would be the one over the garage on the south side of the house, about 15 feet off the ground. The other, over the remainder of the house running north, is a little tighter to work in. It is probably about 25 ft above the ground.

I know nothing about antennas. We are not TV junkies; we mainly want this for one or two news stations coming out of Denver, although if we found some interesting programming on other stations we would probably watch those stations as well. Not really interested in having to turn antennas or playing around with them in anyway really. My wife is certainly not interested in this. She would like a "satellite-like" experience.

So given all of that, and based on the analysis I ran, can anybody reccomend an antenna? (on the assumption the Leaf will not work). Also, if we end up putting one in the attic, will running cable over 30-40 feet and/or splitting the signal to 2 TVs cause a loss of signal?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
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