Near to tower but no LOS

[Ross]

I live on Twin Peaks in San Francisco, very close to the main broadcast tower, Sutro Tower.
Various tools claim I have LOS to the tower (ucp.php?mode=activate&u=3917&k=12W4WKVAPE) but I do not. I can not see it from my roof, and I doubt that any reasonable size mast would give me LOS. If I walk up the hill I'm on, I can see the tower. There are several hills in the area.

I'm using indoor rabbit ears at the moment (Terk 1 or 2). It has no amplifier; I tried an amplified antenna and it didn't help. Sometimes the signals fall off the digital cliff and I have reception problems. I also need to fiddle with the antenna to get things right.

Since I'm interested in recording when I'm not around, I would really like things to work without fiddling (or reorienting, if on the roof, unless that can be preprogrammed).

There are trees around, but no tall buildings. However, as I ascend, buildings block the LOS to the tower.

What should I do?

Currently, the signal goes from the antenna to a DTV converter to the VCR to the analog TV. All of that may change, and I may add a second destination for the signal, namely the computer.

I'm considering getting the HDHomeRun from SiliconDust (http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/atsc/) which has dual digital tuners. I believe it has only a single cable input. It is not a complete PVR since it doesn't do any of the displaying.

[Ross]

I see the URL to TV fool was cut off. It is
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 33c248fb29