I have recently moved and need assistance with an OTA antenna configuration for my situation. I am in Columbia, SC in a one story ranch home situated on a small lake in an old neighborhood. The terrain includes some rolling hills with lots of trees many of which are large and very tall pines. Here is the link to the signal analysis for my location.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...d243840e7e7f51
You will see that there is a cluster of five transmitters on three towers located 12 to 13 miles away at an azimuth of 63 to 70 degrees (real channels 8, 10, 17, 39 & 48). The PBS affiliate, channel 32, is 5-1/2 miles away at 11 degrees. The analysis indicates this is line of sight but in reality there is a 100’ high hill on this path ½ mile away that is covered with houses and thick tall trees. While channel 47 is only 2.4 miles away at 277 degrees we have no interest in watching it but it will likely be received well on the back side of anything pointed at the cluster to the east.
I have temporarily installed a Channel Master 3010 Stealthtenna in my attic and at most times get decent reception on 8, 10 & 17. Channel 32 is hit or miss. Channels 39 & 48 are not received at all. Wind negatively impacts reception causing loss of 32 and poor reception on the other three. I bought the CM 3010 to use at my previous residence which was about 4 miles to the south but had the same issues even with it roof mounted. This compact antenna just has too little gain to work in this situation. I ended up installing an old channel 10 yagi pointed at the cluster along with a 4 bay bow tie UHF array pointed about half way between the cluster and 32. This arrangement worked great providing sufficient gain such that I needed no amplification even after combining the antenna signals and splitting it to feed two TVs.
In the new location I would really like to mount the antennas in the attic both for aesthetics and to shield the antennas from debris that fall from the surrounding trees. If necessary I will roof mount them but would need to select antennas to minimize the visual impact. We will have three TV’s to distribute the signal to. My first thought is to install a VHF-high/UHF yagi pointed toward the cluster and a separate UHF antenna pointed to 32. Another alternative would be to use a VHF-high yagi pointed at the cluster and a UHF antenna with a wide beamwidth pointed somewhere between the cluster and 32 similar to my arrangement at the previous house. If helpful the two antennas could be spaced some distance apart.
The signals from the two antennas would be combined and then amplified for distribution to the three TVs. I have a Winegard model HDP-269 preamplifier with 12dB gain designed to handle high inputs. It includes an FM trap. I also have an old Channel Master model 7336 82 channel UHF/VHF/FM distribution amplifier with four outputs that I could use. The house already has RG-6 run from the attic where the antennas would be located to the TV locations.
Please provide recommendations with as much specifics as possible. Thanks in advance for your assistance.