A newby has reception questions

[gbrowne]

Oopps, I am redirecting this question. Sorry, had it in the intro area first, then discovered that wasn't the right place. Now I feel like home!

OK, so I have this neat little place up at the River and want to get some sort of TV coverage yet not spend a fortune on a place I'll be at only on weekends every now and then. My lat/ long is 29 deg 3'49.89" N,
82 deg 26'7.75" W, zip 34432. It is fairly well treed all over the place. Site is about 45' above sea level. We are up the bank 300 yards from the Rainbow River, a spring fed beauty. I know I have stations at our 12 o'clock,4 o'clock, and 7 o'clock. So my first thought is to determine if this solution must involve a round omni directional antenna?(I've read about national antenna's HD-360, any good?) The farthest stations appear to be about 68 miles, the rest of course are closer. Oh, and if I can avoid a rotor, that would be great. I am using an older non-flat screen type, the kind we've been using for ever. I also picked up a magnavox converter thanks to the government's $40 kicker. Now the primary question is how to gain whatever knowledge I need to put together a receiving system so as not to be at the beck and call of the "pay through the nose" systems. Any and all knowledgabble assistance wouold be greatly appreciated!

[tigerbangs]

I have to tell you, first of all, that omnidirectional antennas are pretty useless devices: they cause more problems than they solve, and most won't see VHF worth a darn. If you plan to run only one TV set from your antenna, then you would be much better off using a rotator and a directional antenna. I have no specific knowledge of the antenna that you asked about, but the very nature of omnidirectional antennas is such that they aren't useful at a distance of more than 10-15 miles from a transmitter, and are useless where there are hills or man-made obstructions in th area.

If this was my installation, I would use a Winegard HD-7696P VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna mounted on your roof, along with a Winegard high-input HDP-269 preamplifier, and an automatic rotator like a Channel Master 9521a, which is programmable and is remote-controlled.

[gbrowne]

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I am currently prepared to buy the appropriate materials for my installation. I shall be following your above recommendations on the stuff needed.

Question: If I use the HD-7696p and the HDP-269, will the amplifier sort of over-do it for those close in signals?? In other words, I am in a locale where I have several stations in the green and yellow areas about 20 to 55 miles out, and I hear that I should receive those stations easily with that rig. But I also have the potential opportunity to receive others at a further distance which would be nice to get, so is the HDP-269 needed ? Or should I bypass using it and be content with just the closer ones, after all, the closer ones have the three majors, fox, and PBS? I might be answering my own question here, but I do appreciate hearing it from an expert.

Question: This is kind of an oddball add-on question, but is this antenna of any value?--LAVA 2605 UHF/VHF/FM HDTV Terrestrial Antenna with Built-In Rotor . I saw it advertised and am not sure if it just a highly touted , advertising piece or does it really work?