Need antenna advice - will need tower

[HoraceBird]

Hi:

I live right on the edge of the swamp off the St. Johns River at Green Cove Springs. My location is 30.003288,-81.56415 or 124 PennyeBrooke Lane, Saint Augustine FL 32092. The floor elevation in my house is six feet above mean sea level. There are tall Cypress, Pine and Gum trees all around me mostly 40 ft tall.

I cannot get cable and don't want satellite. I want to build a new antenna system from scratch so here are my requirements -

I would like to get digital TV signals as far away as Gainesville FL (PBS Station)
I have three TVs, two on digital converters and one 40" LCD digital. I also watch and record TV on my computer using Media Center Windows 7.
I am retired so I have to watch what I spend. I can do the installation myself.
I am planing to install an aluminum roof over my existing shingles.
If I position the antenna base on the south end of the house attaching it to the gable, the base would be 14 feet (about 20 ft of cable) to my computer room where I have a coax hub going to all of the TVs.
If I can get this working right I would like to connect all the TVs to my computer.

Can you reccommend an antenna system and tower that is reasonably priced for my needs. I would like to do this in the next few weeks while I have a large backhoe tractor on site to help raise the tower.

Thanks
Ron

[tigerbangs]

According to your TVFool.com scan, the Gainesville PBS is about 55 miles away from you, and the Jacksonville stations are only about 25 miles from you. My suggestion would be to use a good deep-fringe VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna mounted on a rotator on your tower, use all high-quality, satellite-grand RG-6u coax cable. I would most likely use a Winegard HD-7697P antenna mounted on a Channel master 9521a rotator. If your cable runs are as short as you say that they will be, you shouldn't need a preamplifier, as long as you have a distribution amplifier where your cables connect to the antenna. As for a tower, you can save some money if you use a tower that attaches to the side of your house, rather than using a free-standing tower: I will link some tower prospects to you.

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.channelmaster.com
http://www.amertower.com/pdf%27s/AT_special_tower.pdf
http://www.rohnnet.com/resourcesmodule/ ... f412e09dd/
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

[HoraceBird]

Thanks for the info. I would assume that I need a 50' mast so the overall cable length would be about 75'. The good thing about where I live is that I am so low that wind is not a problem. Do I need to get the antenna above the trees? What height mast would you say I need?

Thanks
Ron

[tigerbangs]

I based your TVFool.com findings on a height of 30': at that height, you should be OK with Jacksonville. If you are concerned about Gainesville, you might be looking at 50'