Ok, here goes. My tv fool report:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...1dda55341bc8ad
DirecTV installed their dish on the west side of the house, facing south/southwest. I am hoping to use some of their mounting equipment because the roof just received a nice bath of larger-than-golf-ball-size hail, and it's literally covered in soft spots awaiting replacement. I'm pretty sure the satellite dish is about 15 feet in the air. If I had a good roof, I could probably get the antenna as high as 20 or so feet at the apex, but obstructing trees are not really an issue on the west side of the house so I'd rather not risk it. LOS appears to be ok overall.
Our problem in a nutshell is that the networks we want to watch the most (Kids - PBS, Wife - ABC, Myself - CBS) are all on the Hi-VHF band, and the amplified indoor antennas we've tried (RCA and Terk) have only been able to pick up these signals at 50% or less strength, unless we're willing to walk around the room holding the antenna in the magic spot (not really cutting the cord if you end up running a cord directly to the center of your living room, with dipoles blocking the kitchen and hallway). Pretty crummy considering all of the calculators show that these are green signals and shouldn't require more than a good indoor antenna to pick up). UHF signals have not been a problem, and I think if we didn't have a built-in ATSC tuner, we might be able to get a weak signal on most of those without an antenna at all!
All channels desired come from the 295-297 degree heading, magnetic north. I am hopeful that you guys can recommend a good UHF/Hi-VHF antenna stationary setup for us (antenna, amplifier, and mount).
Thank you in advance and I look forward to your responses.