College student looking for HD channels

[rackham]

I'm on the third floor of a dorm on the UC Santa Barbara campus (93107). The terrain should definitely come into play because my college has a 175 foot tower on campus, a small airport just over a mile away, an ocean behind me, and mountains in front of me.


Picture of terrain. My dorm is on the side of campus closest to where the picture was taken.


I bought myself a Sony Bravia M-Series 26 inch HDTV, and I'm looking to get some HD channels to accompany the cable channels that I already get for free. However, I'm not sure if I have HD channels in my area, or just standard SDTV channels. Antennaweb doesn't specify. Also, I'm wondering if the Winegard SS-3000 HDTV Antenna would be the best choice, or if there is another antenna that would best fit my need for an indoor antenna. Also, am I correct in thinking that I would need a directional antenna in order to account for the possible interference that the tower and airport could cause?

Another thing, somehow some of the people were able to get two SDTV channels through the coaxial cable output in their dorms by entering codes. They don't even know why they're able to get them, but it might be worth noting.

[hdtvlabs]

Cool picture, man

It looks like you have a line-of-sight only to a handful of Santa Barbara stations, and these are well separated so that you can not pick them all without rotating. I would try SS-3000 if indoor is a must, but I am not excited about the possibilities

Also, am I correct in thinking that I would need a directional antenna in order to account for the possible interference that the tower and airport could cause?

Generally correct, that would eliminate the reflections coming from the tower ...