Renters in a Rural Area- We Don't Want an Outdoor, but...

[MmeZeeZee]

We live in 97147, Oregon. We rent a house. We got a Scepter digital TV from Costco for Christmas and it doesn't get any HDTV channels and it doesn't get PBS at all. We really want to get at least the analog channels for now, including PBS. We have tried three indoor antennas: one that is basically a tube that we had on our 1980s Panasonic, our neighbors' rabbit ears (new) that work on their TV, and an older pair of rabbit ears that they had in their shed that they said did not work well. They all received the three networks poorly, and none received PBS without one of us standing with the antenna in our hands in some place where we could never place the antenna (not to mention the television).

Our signal comes via a tower about 10 miles away on a hill. Putting the TV in another room is not a realistic option.

So what I'm wondering is, can we get away with an indoor antenna? We do not want to go on the roof or install anything as we could be moving within a few months. Is there any indoor antenna that could help us, or does our situation doom us to buying a really expensive outdoor antenna that we will have to take down soon? Also we get a lot of wind here and I am afraid that an outdoor antenna would get sketchy in bad weather.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. Anyone else on the coast, I'd love to hear your experiences.

[tigerbangs]

First of all, all of the translators in your area are analog, and the stations operate on UHF. There are no digital signals available in your area. The stations that you receive will continue to broadcast in analog for the foreseeable future, so, no high-def for you! Two thoughts here: One is to be sure that your TV set is programmed in the main menu to receive stations via 'air' or 'antenna' signals, as the cable TV settings that your TV came with by default won't pick up the UHF stations properly. The tipoff is if your stations come in on weird-numbered channels like channel 84 or 115. Reprogram your tuner and the stations should appear on their proper channels. As for what antenna to use, pick up a Channel Master 4221 4-bay UHF antenna and put it in a window that faces the TV tower: Once you have that in place, you should get some decent reception.

[MmeZeeZee]

Oh, thank you so much! So that is why we only found analog. I thought they HAD to switch to digital- what is that all about? Hrnh. The television is programmed to get air signals, as we don't have cable, so I do not think that is the problem. Although- they are on weird numbered channels, but then, they were on the other television as well.

Thanks for your advice. Can I ask why you recommend the Channel Master?

Edited to add: I just realized that you recommended an outdoor antenna. We live in a small house, so putting an outdoor antenna indoors, while an interesting and tempting compromise, is not going to work.