Its amazing what you can pick up with the correct antenna 
For the last 5-6 years I have had a Radio Shack U-120 (UHF only) as my OTA antenna. It use to be at our cabin before that for 5 years so its got a good amount of use. I figured since Minneapolis was all UHF digital I had no issues I was 28 miles form the towers (according to TVfool) so everything signal wise was nice and strong
100 on the 42" Panasonic
90-95 on the 2 DTVPal converter boxes I had at the time
The 6/12/09 hit and my Fox and NBC went to their analog spots (9 & 11) on VHF Hi yet I still had decent signal on them even though the antenna was UHF only...the Panny had 80 on channel 9 and 83 on channel 11. But I had some dropouts on the converter boxes even though they were showing mid 70's (below 60 is threshold)
So I finally decided to upgrade and went to Rat Shack (heck they're 2 blocks away) and found out they dont sell Radio Shack brand antennas anymore So I picked up an antennacraft HBU33 antenna.
WOW!! what a difference
Even using a 4 way splitter all of my full powered channels show 100 on the Panny and between 95-100 on the DTVPal units and the DTVPal DVR. Even the 2 low powered religious stations show around 80 signal. Here is my tvfool report
Everything in green I get. Couple errors on the report. 2 of the stations are not in digital yet they claim it is (14 & 43 are analog only)
But what rocks is if I swing the antenna to 216 degrees I get KEYC 12 (CBS/Fox subchannel) Mankato which is 72 miles away. It shows as a 60 on the Panny and 69 on the converter box which is low but considering the antenna is bolted on the deck (tripod/10 foot mast) and when I spin the antenna towards Mankato the roof is in the way I'm happy it works
Sorry for the long post but I guess if you have the right antenna for the job you get better results
For the last 5-6 years I have had a Radio Shack U-120 (UHF only) as my OTA antenna. It use to be at our cabin before that for 5 years so its got a good amount of use. I figured since Minneapolis was all UHF digital I had no issues
I was 28 miles form the towers (according to TVfool) so everything signal wise was nice and strong100 on the 42" Panasonic
90-95 on the 2 DTVPal converter boxes I had at the time
The 6/12/09 hit and my Fox and NBC went to their analog spots (9 & 11) on VHF Hi yet I still had decent signal on them even though the antenna was UHF only...the Panny had 80 on channel 9 and 83 on channel 11. But I had some dropouts on the converter boxes even though they were showing mid 70's (below 60 is threshold)
So I finally decided to upgrade and went to Rat Shack (heck they're 2 blocks away) and found out they dont sell Radio Shack brand antennas anymore
So I picked up an antennacraft HBU33 antenna. WOW!! what a difference
Even using a 4 way splitter all of my full powered channels show 100 on the Panny and between 95-100 on the DTVPal units and the DTVPal DVR. Even the 2 low powered religious stations show around 80 signal. Here is my tvfool report
Everything in green I get. Couple errors on the report. 2 of the stations are not in digital yet they claim it is (14 & 43 are analog only)
But what rocks is if I swing the antenna to 216 degrees I get KEYC 12 (CBS/Fox subchannel) Mankato which is 72 miles away. It shows as a 60 on the Panny and 69 on the converter box which is low but considering the antenna is bolted on the deck (tripod/10 foot mast) and when I spin the antenna towards Mankato the roof is in the way I'm happy it works
Sorry for the long post but I guess if you have the right antenna for the job you get better results
