Antenna for 20850 ?

[Kalos]

We're in Zip Code 20850, (Rockville, Maryland) 2nd floor of an apartment building facing south-west. There is a ten story commercial building directly in front of the apartment, blocking most of the view towards Washington, DC broadcast antennas.

We'd like to get rid of cable. The existing little Philips MANT270 rabbit ears+loop antenna is entirely inadequate in the middle of the living room. Signal strength varies between 10% and 60%. All channels are at least occasionally pixilated. Baltimore channels can't be seen at all.

So what's suggested? COSTCO is selling the AntennaDirect C2 at a low price.

[ProjectSHO89]

The C2 is about as good as it gets for a UHF antenna for indoor use. Costco's price on the version with the indoor mounting base isn't too bad.

However, two of your DC stations are on VHF channels that will be problems with a UHF antenna. Further, your described location makes reception challenging, at best.

Bottom line is that for indoor use, trial and error is as good as it will get since any prediction of indoors reception is next to impossible.

You can always return the C2 for a refund if it doesn't work out for you.

You could always try the Winegard FV-HD30. It does better on VHF than does the C2 although its UHF performance leaves a lot to be desired. Since VHF is usually harder to get indoors, the balance might work out that way.