Antenna Help

[deadeye]

I'd like to switch from cable to over air. I live in Racine WI 53403 almost midway between Chicago and Milwaukee. I've searched the forum for anyone else in this are so the same question doesn't have to be answered again.
I live in a two story house on lake michigan so view to chicago has few obstructions. When looking at the antennaweb.org it looks like the majority of nearby stations will be uhf and are between 30 and 50 miles away. I'd like to pick up as many stations as possible including FM radio hopefully without a rotating antenna.
The house is wired with RG6 and I would probably hooking up 4-6 televisions.
Any suggestions would be most helpful.

Thanks

[tigerbangs]

If you won't use a rotator, you will have to choose between Milwaukee or Chicago, because one antenna won't do both cities, and joining antenna for multiple cities creates a lot of problems. Use a Winegard HD-7697P VHF-high-band+UHF antenna mounted on the roof plus a Winegard HDP-269 preamplifier. Both Chicago and Milwaukee will have VHF digital stations after Feb17, 2009, so you will need VHF reception in addition to UHF reception. The preamplifier will allow you enoughsignal to power several TV sets as necessary. Install the splitter AFTER the preamplifier power supply.

[deadeye]

Thanks for the info. Since it's been years since I watched over the air broadcast I would I find the programming to see what channels I want to capture, and or which city would be a better target?
Also if I did decide to use a rotator, which would you suggest?

Last thing. I did look up the Winegard HD-7697P . I have to say it's pretty huge. Any chance there's a smaller antenna that would still be successful?

[tigerbangs]

Chicago would certainly be more diverse than Milwaukee as far as programming goes, since it's a larger city, so if I had to choose one city, I would shoot for Chicago. As far as the size of the antenna goes, you could scale back to the HD-7696P. but since both CBS and ABC will be on VHF from Chicago after February 17, I don't think that you ought to scale back your antenna too much, as VHF stations require more antenna size to get similar reception, and you are about 59 miles from the transmitters, which is fringe-area by anyone's definition.