The past few years I have used an outdoor air antenna to get local tv stations. All are digital of course and several are HD. I have not had cable since I dumpped U-Verse about 18 months ago.

Anyway, I recently moved into an apartment and I'm having problems getting one local channel that I like to watch daily. Being in an apartment, they forbid mounting an satalite dish but did not mention air antennas. I assume they forbid those as well, however, I mounted one outside anyway.

My problem is that I'm on the lower floor and the only place I could mount my antenna was on the underside of the balcony above my entrance. To test the antenna, I had it hanging for a few days with fishing line and got all of the channels that I desired. A few days later I decided to make the mount permanent and decided to paint it to subdue (camouflage) it under the balcony. Now I'm getting all of the channels except the one that shows my favorite show. The problem channel is only 25.1 miles away, 153 degrees. I believe I have the antenna pointed close to that direction but it is not coming in.

My problem may be that I have allowed the antenna to touch the bottom of the balcony above. I have read that it should not touch the attic floor if it's mounted in the attic where I had it at the house I just moved out of. So, my new plan is to go get a short pole and bracket and mount the antenna on the pole that will be attached to the bottom of the balcony. My thoughts is to give the antenna no less than a 1" clearance from the bottom of the balcony. The more room I give it from the bottom of the balcony the more likely it will be spotted by people that go by and may trigger a problem with the management. As it stands now it is almost invisible.

Another problem I'm having is that I get dropouts when cars drive by or park in front of my apartment. Not sure if that can be cured. I have a Winegard amplifier that is NOT working, it went out while I was at my last location. The thing only worked for about 3 months. I have never grounded the antenna, maybe it took a surge.

Any of you guys use an antenna to pull in tv stations? I get about 22 channels.

 

I use Antenna Web to help direct me in installing the antenna and pointing it in the right direction.
AntennaWeb

Chrutchfield actually has a good article on the subject.
Choosing & Installing an Antenna for HDTV

The good thing about it is that the HD quality is second to none. Better than U-Verse and you get HD sound with many shows. The first time I hooked up an antenna I was blown away by sound that the 5.1 HD sound put out. I was away and got home from an outing with the family. They went one direction and I ran to the bedroom to turn on a NBA game. When I turned on the TV and started watching, I actually hard some whispering. The tv was mounted on the wall between two closets. I had never heard people whispering at a NBA game before so I thought someone was trapped in my closet and was trying to talk on the phone. I reached over and jerked the closet door open expecting to see someone crouched down in the closet and to my surprise no one was there. LOL I then realized that it was the HD sound that I was now experiencing. Totally blew me away. Awsome!!!

Besides the free digital tv with HD, I also subscribe to NetFlix streaming. Between the two we do ok.

 

I wish I could use an antenna but I do not get a good enough signal. I don't pay for cable though, I get a couple of channels with my cable modem but I get most of my TV on demand using a service called PlayOn on my server.

 

Are you just to far from the stations? Or are they just all over the place and you'll need an antenna that rotates?