Rooftop antenna selection advice needed. 92604

[retiredfornow]

I live in Irvine, Calif. zip 92604 in a 2 story house with a metal with composite covered shingle roof. According to antenna web I need a yellow zone antenna for all stations exceptchannel 30.1Ion UHF station which is green area and VHF channels 11.1 Fox, and 13.1 KCOP local channel. All channels are at 325 degrees direction from Mount Wilson above Los Angeles about 40 1/2 miles away. I have 2 analog TVs with converter boxes and one new 19inch digital HDTV in the kitchen.
I have a 20 year old radio shack antenna on the roof and the 2 analog sets have signal amplifiers at each TV. My reception is spotty now. The new HD digital Samsung TV gets a great HD picture but I get an occasional bout of pixilation or dropped signal.
I need a better rooftop Antenna and have the following questions.
1. Do I now need an antenna that receives VHF channels 1 thru 6? I see some antennas are for VHF only from channel 7 and up. Our VHF channel 2 is CBS and NBC is channel 4 and a local channel 5 KTTV that I need to receive as well as higher VHF channels and UHF channels
2. I want the smallest size roof antenna for aesthetic reasons and neighbor grumbling issues about the "unsightliness". But I first want the best reception hopefully without having to use plug-in amplifiers. I cant put a powered amp outside at the antenna.
3. Can you help me choose the right antenna? Thanks for any help. Mark

[tigerbangs]

Mark, now that digital is the rule, the low-band VHF channels, KCBS, KNBC and KTLA, have moved to UHF, even though they still identify their channels as 2,4 and 5. KABC, KCAL, KTTV and KCOP are still on their original VHF channels, and there are a number of other stations that are in LA that also on UHF, such as your local PBS station. Therefore, you really need a a channel 7-51 antenna for today's TV reception. It's hard to know what kind of antenna you have now, but chances are that it is weathered, and the cabling needs to be replaced. If you are running 3 TV sets, then you need a single splitter-amplifier that will divide the signal from your antenna to your TV sets, and amplify the sigal to prevent losses due to splitting and cable losses. My suggestion to you would be to buy a Winegard HD-7696P VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna, mount it in place of your existing antenna, aim it at 325 degres by a compas, and replace ALL of the existing cable with new RG-6u satellite-grade cable. I would eliminate the existing ampliffiers and splitters, and use a single Channel Master CM3414 splitter-amplifier. Run the antenna cable from the antenna to the splitter, amplifier, then run the cables from the CM3414 to oyur TV tuners. You should get perfect reception when you are through.


http://www.winegard.com
http://www.channelmaster.com
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf