m Ransley wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

That's probably their #190, a good antenna , but $99 is the normal
price, not the sale price, which is often 50% off, and some stores have
closed out antennas for $5-20 (my #210 was $10).

Mount the antenna as high as possible, but secure the mast well,
including with guy wires in addition to any tripod. Ground the mast to
earth, with a long grounding rod if your house's ground rod isn't close
by (best to bond any other rod to the house's rod0, and ground the
coaxial antenna cable shield with a grounding block. Also install a
lightning arrestor (Radio Shack doesn't have them any more) and ground
it too. Use either RG-59, RG-6, or, best of all, RG-6QS (quad shield,
blocks interference best) cable. Where the cable enters the building,
let it sag at least 6" to make any water that runs down it drip off
instead of run inside. All of this information is given in the
instructions included with every outdoor antenna, VCR, and TV, among
the precautions listed in one of the first pages.

Each kind of cable requires its own connectors, and connectors are made
in both regular and waterproof types, but black electrical tape does a
good job of waterproofing (don't stretch the last few turns or the tape
will unravel). Do not use RG-58 cable, which is 50-ohm characteristic
impedance cable and will cause ghosts with TVs, amplifiers, and
antennas, all which use 75 ohms. With a high-gain antenna you may not
need an amplifier, just a splitter. Any unused outlets of the splitter
should be terminated with 75 ohm resistors to prevent ghosting, either
at the splitter or, more conveniently, at the wall outlets (may not be
a good idea if small children are around since they can unscrew them
and swallow them). Amplifiers are either preamps that mount on the
mast (usually best) or distribution amplifiers that go indoors. With
the latter I don't like mounting powered devices inside unfinished
attics, unless they're completely enclosed in steel to block fires.

You may want to paint the plastic of the antenna white to protect it
against ultraviolet sunlight and ozone. Don't use any other colors
since they may contain metals that can short out the signal, and other
colors can make plastic get hot enough to melt or crack. Ordinary
white spray enamel or lacquer works, but you may want to try Krylon
Fusion, made especially for plastic.