I'm trying to find an antenna for my friend to use as he doesn't watch tv enough to make it worth paying for cable. He lives in an apartment on the first floor of a two floor building. His landlord will not allow an outdoor antenna to be installed. Judging by antennaweb, it seems his nearest station is 55 miles away, he'd like to be able to get fox/abc/wb.

I'm been looking at the db2, and some amplified antennas, but don't want to buy if theres no chance. I've attached the tvfool output, are there any antennas that might work that I can place inside?

Possible, but doubtful. Elevation helps a lot, and using a good outdoor antenna & low noise preamp indoors may help. A friend of mine is using a ChannelMaster CM4221 4bay bowtie (http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/4221.htm) + CM7777 VHF+UHF preamp (http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/7777.htm) indoors (leaning against an exterior wall facing the towers), and is getting channels between 60 & 70 miles away. But he is on a hill.

The channels you listed show NBC & FOX on VHF, so you'll need a VHF+UHF antenna & VHF+UHF preamp. Buy locally so you can return the antenna if it doesn't work.

The tvfool.com results are not promising for an indoor antenna. If your friend was located on the 2nd or higher floor, he would have a better chance. Does the building have a common rooftop antenna? If it is an older apartment building, it might have a common rooftop antenna that was used back in the day.

Still, the tvfool numbers are not terrible, but they are also not actual measurements, only calculated estimates based on the limits of the terrain data. If you or your friend has a ATSC tuner in the TV or a converter box, it is worth trying it with an inexpensive antenna you buy locally to see if you can get signals for the major network stations. Two of the major stations, WXXA-DT Fox 23 on VHF 7 and WNYT-DT NBC 13 on VHF 12, are on upper VHF, so the antenna needs to receive upper VHF and UHF. That rules out the DB2 unless accompanied by a VHF antenna. If you can find one locally, you could try the Terk HDTVi which combines the Silver Sensor for UHF and rabbit ears for VHF. Terks are not very good antennas in general, but the Terk HDTVi is the only widely available combination of Silver Sensor and rabbit ears that does not have a crappy built-in amp.

Also, is there a balcony he could stick an antenna out on, semi-hidden up on the ceiling of the balcony area?