[andy.s.lee]

Originally Posted by rabeatz

I did pick up a little indoor amplified antenna by RCA, picks up a couple channels like the WESH, but there is alot of stuff on the desk I put it on, and tuning it (digitally) is a challenge since you don't get the snow to tell you if it's better or not.

Does your TV have a built in signal meter? If so, it can tell you the signal "quality" (not strength) as you turn your antenna around. This might help you find an antenna orientation that works well for the majority of channels.

Most of your channels should come in best when the "face" of the antenna is pointing toward the main transmitter cluster (to the east of where you are). The rabbit ears need to be extended about half way for WESH.

The current antenna actually has two antennas mounted on the pole - the lower one looks similar to this:
http://freetoronto.tv/images/AntV1ch.jpg

That's a VHF-only yagi antenna.

While the one on top that I was connecting to looks similar to this:
http://www.rocketroberts.com/cm4251/..._ant_jan83.jpg (bottom antenna in image)

That's a "small" VHF/UHF combo antenna.

Do you know what CEA color code the two antennas you mentioned are in?

Don't know what color codes they belong to, but I don't put much stake in the meanings of those anyway. All that really matters is how strong the signals are and how much gain the antenna has.

I will probably look those ones up later, but I'm on a budget and trying to stick to $30-$50 dollars for the antenna.

I was going to get the Antennacraft® HBU22 High-VHF/UHF Antenna until I looked up what Blue/Violet are and realized it was nothing close to what AntennaWeb said I needed.

That antenna should work.

The HBU22 is smaller than the Winegard 7694P. It's also smaller than the antenna you already have. This means you can expect the gain to be lower. However, your local channels are pretty strong, so I expect that it will still work.

BTW, Winegard antennas have historically had a good reputation of lasting a long time. Not so sure about the Antennacraft construction, but it looks OK to me.

The next step up (HBU33) is closer to the Winegard antenna, and seems to be similarly priced at that level.

Are far as splitting the signal - it would probably go to 3 different TVs. Would it be more effective to add a pre-amp or other forms of amplification, or to get a larger antenna?

I'd go with a pre-amp. Being in hurricane country, a smaller antenna may have a better chance against the elements.

A pre-amp is usually better than a distribution amp because it can be placed up close to the antenna (before you incur any cable loss). Pre-amps are also usually designed with lower noise figures than distribution amps. Both of these factors will help you keep as much signal quality as possible (whatever your antenna can deliver).

Another thing - when Dishnetwork connects their satellite dishes, do they run anything in the coaxial line that would interfere with the antenna signal? Conveniently, my Dish was installed directly next to the antenna, so I can just disconnect that and connect it to the RG-6 that dish installed.. but I guess I need to go into the attic and see if Dish put anything on that line that would mess with the signal, or if it runs stright to the Dish receiver.

There may be a multi-switch in the middle somewhere (for sharing a dish among multiple receivers). You can bypass that to get a straight connection to your TV area.

Best regards,
Andy