A bit of a challenge for an antenna - NNY

[digitalamish]

I have a summer camp I just bought in Northern NY, along the St. Lawrence. The antenna that was on the roof was blown off in the spring, and I am just getting around to replacing it. Since most of my programming comes from Canada, and they switch over to digital in a month or two, I want to make sure I get a good replacement for the roof.

Here are 2 tvfool links. This one is my actual address:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 03c3f21c8c
but that seems a little conservative. The old roof antenna did a bit better than that. Here is a tvfool for a location about 1/4 of a mile away:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... d2a7b0786b
because of the terrain (mostly bedrock and pine trees), my place is probably in the middle.

Since the place does get alot of snow in the winter, I want to make sure whatever I get won't be too top heavy. So, any suggestions? I don't want to break the bank, but I'm not going to suffer with rabbit ears. A nice solid, economical, roofie.

[tigerbangs]

I know almost exactly where you are, and have installed a few antennas up in that area. Yes, Ottawa and Kingston deliver most of the TV into that area. The Watertown, NY stations will give you most American Network programming, except, unfortunately NBC. Global from Ottawa, (CIII, Channel 6) has most of the NBC programming, however. Ottawa has about 15 over-the-air stations of it's own:more than any other city in Canada, and you should be able to find just about anything that you are looking for from Ottawa: even the Red Sox...LOL. I did a couple of antennas in Gouverneur-Fowler, which is even farther away from Ottawa than you are, and got everything just fine. The issue at the moment is that there is still al lot of confusion about what will move to digital in Canada, and what channels they will operate on. The digital stations that I am aware of in Canada that are currently operating are all running much lower power than what we are seeing from comparable US stations, and that is going to make receiving those stations, and the newly converted digital stations at the end of August questionable.

Here's what I would suggest for you: I would use a VHF-_UHF combination antenna like a Winegard HD-7084P or a Channel Master Crossfire 3671 mounted on your roof along with a rotator like a Channel Master 9521a. You are going to have a VHF-low-band channel from Ottawa in digital after the transition (CIII, Global, channel 6) and you'll need the low-band performance of one of these antennas to see it. If you want to try an preamplifier, you will need a high-input model like a Winegard HDP-269 because a couple of the Watertown, NY stations are strong enough to overload some preamplifiers in your area. I have a feeling that you will be very successful with such an antenna system. Good Luck,