Distance and Degree's in Zip 95603

[sadric]

I live in Auburn, California 95603 which is in the foothills above the Sacramento Valley. I wanna make the switch from satellite (DishNetwork) to FREE Digital/HD TV on two differant TV sets, both of which are SAMSUNG 40" LCD's with digital tuners and I am trying to decide what kind of antenna I'll need.
Entering my address and zip code in antennaweb came up with a bunch of stations that are available in my area, and all of them are listed as yellow.
With the exception of maybe some trees and a couple of houses I have a pretty good view into the valley below me.
In order to recieve good signal antennaweb suggests I need a small multi-directional outdoor antenna for good reception.
Here is where I am getting a little confused though:
Distance
All of the stations/transmitters listed on antennaweb are beween 48 and 54 miles from me and most of the antenna's I've looked at have listed specifications with smaller ranges.
Why are the distance's so great from me to the stations/transmitters but antennaweb is listing them all as yellow? Is it because I'm above the valley and distance doesn't really count? If so what is my maximum distance from the stations/transmitters and with what kind of antenna's?
Compass heading in degree's
All of the stations listed are within a few degree's of each other. All are between 192 to 194 degee's from true north.
Do I need multi-directional (omni) or is a directional antenna betterin my case? 2 0r 3 degree's on the compass doesn't seem like much, am I wrong.
Because of looks a smaller antenna is better (especially when dealing with the wife). Can anyone suggest a good antenna considering my situation. Also, i said i am going to split the signal between 2 tv's. Do I need an amplifier or any other special equipment?
I'd appreciate any response and if needed could be more descriptive if I havn't givin enough information.
Thank you,
Sadric

[tigerbangs]

Your local elevation is the key to needing less-than-normal antenna equipment. In order to know your specific requirements, please post wither your coordinates in decimal or your local street address (PM me if you are more comfortable) and we can make more specific antenna recommendations. It would appear that you also have the San Franscisco stations available to you if your location is right.

[sadric]

First off thanks for the reply, great web site and any and all help is really appreciated.
Coordinates are:
38.912129,-121.065582
Pretty much clear view into valley Westward and almost clear view toward SouthWest and the Greater Sacramento area where transmitters all seem to be located. When I say almost clear I mean maybe a few tree's across the street and maybe house top or two, but doubt their taller than the attic space of my house.
Would like to have as many clear stations as possible, but my wife is already on me about the looks of what she calls a prehistoric metal antenna on our roof top. If elevation negates some of the distance in regards to my reception, can I get away with a smaller more satellite looking antenna like maybe the Winegard MS2000? The Gable end of my house points toward the valley due West and I have no metal coated insulation in walls. All my electrical comes up from under the house with nothing above except what runs up interior walls of living area and across ceiling to light fixtures below attic ( no electrical in attic walls above living space) Could attic installation work with maybe more powerful directional antenna and amplifier? Wall would be 6" studs, paper backed fiberglass insulation, comp roofing 6 and 12 pitch. Attic is used for nothing and would be big enough space to accomidate almost any size antenna.
Any and all thought's are appreciated,
Sadric

[tigerbangs]

Gee. if I was in your situation, and had the number of TV possibilities that you have, I wouldn't be worried about what a fairly small antenna looked like. My experience with wives is that it is much better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission!

Based on a TVFool.com scan of your specific location, all of the Sacremento and San Francisco stations should be available to you with a good antenna system. It's a rare situation that finds as much TV available in an area as you have. If you are interested only in the Sacremento stations, then I would suggest using a Winegard HD-7694P. You can attic mount it if you want, but you will cut down the amount of signal strength available by about 50%, however, it should still be sufficent to see the Sacremento stations. There should be enough signal from the antenna that you should be able to use the antenna with just a splitter to get your Sacremento stations. If you want to , you can add a Winegard HDA-100line amplifier before the splitter to shore-up the signals, and to provide for future expansion to 4 TV sets in the future, if you like.

If you are willing to go "whole-hog" and shoot for the San Francisco stations, you'll have success if you use my "deep-fringe-prescription" which is a roof-mounted antenna array employing a Winegard YA-1713 VHF high-band yagi plus an AntennasDirect XG-91 UHF antenna mounted on the same mast on your roof, separated by 4' with the UHF antenna on top. Use a Channel Master 9521a rottor to turn the array, and combine the two antennas using a Pico-Macon UFSJ antenna joiner. Add a Winegard HP-269 high-input preamplifier after the joiner . Run your RG-6u coaxial cable indoors and mount yur preamplifier power supply where you have AC power avai;lable, then add your 2-way high-quality splitter after the preamplifier power supply. That array will allow you to turn the antenna to see SF as well as Sacremento. It doesn't have the WAF (wife accptance factor) that the attic-mounted antenna has, but I have found that the objections tend to fade away when you add 20 or 30 new TV stations to the mix. Good Luck!