On 13 Jan 2010 17:37:58 GMT, wrote:

Peter wrote:

I live only 10 miles from most of my transmitters and found that even a
highly amplified, directional indoor antenna did not give me satisfactory

If you are only 10 miles away over flat territory and using
an amplifier, that is likely your problem. You are getting
too much signal. If you remove the amp you should do better.

Also with the indoor antenna, if you're having trouble with VHF
stations it could be because the rabbit ears are extended too *far*.
I'd always assumed they should be fully extended, but that's not
necessarily the case.

I'm using a cheapo $10 dipole+UFH loop antenna. Here in Sacramento,
20 miles from the transmitters, I was getting all of the UHF stations
fine after the transition, but the local ABC and PBS station moved
back to VHF-high (channels 9 and 10) and I couldn't get them
consistently. I finally stumbled upon:

http://www.kyes.com/antenna/rabbitear.html

And after pushing the dipoles in to be ~30" tip to tip, the signal
improved significantly. We don't have any stations in VHF-lo anymore
(some markets do); if we did I suspect a compromise length would be
needed. I also hung the antenna using the UHF loop from a hook ~6 ft
high on the wall to get it away from the TV itself. Fortunately all
of the worthwhile stations here transmit from the same location
located straight perpendicular to that wall.

Josh