outdoor antenna

[rebs]

Live at zip code 14304
I will only have one tv on this antenna
I am looking to get DTV and HD channels
A non directional antenna would also help- me to get canadian channels
what would you recommend ?

Thank you for your help

[tigerbangs]

Remember that many Canadian channels will remain in analog for some time to come, so you cannot rely on digital alone if you are looking for Canadian stations. Currently, CBC and CTV from Toronto, as well as SUN TV and CITY-TV dend out digital signals, but the other Toronto stations remain in analog. Picking up the Buffalo stations will also be a challenge because the Buffalo stations' transmitters are scattered throught your area in different directions. You are very close to a couple of Buffal transmitters, but some are as far as 35 miles from your location. An omnidirectional antenna is almost NEVER a good solution because those antenna rely on an ampplifier to provide any gain, and have no ability to reject multipath distortion. I guarantee you that an omnidirectional antenna will be a disaster where you live.

If we assume that you will be able to see CBC and CTV from Toronto in digital, then you can get away with a VHF-high-band + UHF antenna mounted on your roof and employing a rotator. A good one-antenna solution is the Winegard HD-7697P, which is ppowerful and compact. I suspect that you may need more UHF gain that the HD-7697P provides, and you might also consider using a separate VHF and UHF antenna combined into one coaxial cable. I would suggest an AntennasDirect XG-91 plus a Winegard YA-1713 high-band VHF yagi. I would use a Channel Master 9521a rotator to turn the array, and combine the two antennas using a Pico-Macom USFJ Splitter-Joiner. If you have trouble with some of the weaker signals from Toronto, you can also consider a Winegard HDP-269 preamplifier to overcome the line-losses associated with the coaxial cable, but be careful, because you have strong local UHF stations within a few miles of your location, and the preamplifier can overload in the face of very strong stations, obliterating your digital signals.