Antenna help 47455

[brent]

I'm near Patricksburg, Indiana. I'd like to receive signals from Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Bloomington.
My house already has two very old outdoor antennas above my metal roof .The one I use appears to be a homemade omni (I think), the other one is an old directional that doesn't seem to work at all. With such a wide separation of stations, would two combined antennas work well for me, or can I get by with one good one.
Right now I get channel 10CBS most reliably (Terre Haute) and 30PBS (Bloomington) is decent but hasn't been working well lately. If I'm lucky, I can get 2NBC and 38FOX (both in Terre Haute) On rare occasions, like the last time we had a big snow, I could get 4CW (Indianapolis). Before the analog/digital switch I had decent luck getting 6ABC (Indianapolis), but I never get that one since digital switch.

Recommendations?

[tigerbangs]

Well, let's consider clearing the roof of what's currently installed, and start fresh. Based on a generic TVFool.com report of your zip code, you are well within the range of the Indianapolis and Terre Haute stations if you use the right antenna equipment. You didn't mention how many TV sets you plan to run from the antenna, or if you were using any Tivo-type recording equipment, but if we assume that neither is in play here, then your best bet would be a deep-fringe VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna mounted as high on your roof as you can comfortably manage, and use a rotator to turn the antenna between the various cities that you are looking to receive.

My suggestion would be to use a Winegard HD-7697P mounted on top of a Channel Master 9521a automatic rotator. I would also consider using a high-input preamplifier like a Winegard HDP-269 IF you plan to run very long cable lines ( more than 75') from the antenna, or if you want to run multiple TV sets from the antenna. The rotator will allow you to turn the antenna easily between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, however, Indianapolis has all of the national networks represented, so chances are good that you may aim your antenna that direction most of the time.

Here are some links to the equipment:
http://winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD7697P.pdf
http://channelmaster.com/product-overvi ... 8&catID=34
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf