I'm in a close NYC suburb. Empire State Building is just 5 miles south. But I also need two other UHF PBS stations -- one is 10 miles due west in NJ, the other is 28 miles due east in Long Island. I'm up high on a ridge with no obstructions, but there are some apartment buildings in other directions that can cause analog ghosting.

The signals are all strong enough that I can point an indoor Silver Sensor south, and the PBS stations off to the sides (E & W) will still come in. Those analog signals to the sides ghost considerably with the Silver Sensor pointed that way, but the digital signals are still solid and that's all I care about.

I now want to use an outdoor rooftop antenna pointed south instead of the Silver Sensor. Any suggestions on which one will have a wide enough reception lobe to keep getting those digital signals off to the sides without requiring a rotor? Someone suggested the Winegard HD-7010, think that's really the best bet?

Generally the higher the gain the narrower the beam, the smaller the side lobes, so it's a direct trade-off. If the stations are far enough away to need antenna gain, say over 25 miles, the beam will be quite narrow and probably not work for off the side located stations.

I built the "home made coat hanger UHF" test antenna and it worked surprisingly well. Might be good as a probe in your situation.

I think you will be better off with a bow-tie type antenna, such as a Channel Master 4221 if you are trying to avoid a rotor. Bow-ties have wider acceptance angles as compared to Yagi's.

However, you may need to add a VHF antenna for 7 and 11, for when they move back to VHF next year. The 4221 may work, but channel 7 is far from its comfort zone.

Thanks, that led me to find the antenna comparison at hdtvprimer.com (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html) and I see what you mean -- the CM 4221 does have a pretty wide pickup pattern, and my Silver Sensor appears to be even wider which explains a lot.

I am a bit concerned about going with the bowties which might not perform well enough on VHF after the transition though. Are there any other alternatives?

http://i29.tinypic.com/15x8g94.gif
Red lines are the ones I need

One alternative is to add a VHF antenna if the 4221 does not get it done. One example would be:

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=Y5-7-13#MORE

Another option is to go with something like the newer Winegard 7-69 combo antennas:

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=HD7694P

Most of the major VHF stations will be in the same direction, except 8. How is your VHF reception now with rabbit ears?

Edit: Another option would be something like this:

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?main_cat=03&CAT=&PROD=SMS2000

At only 5 miles to the towers, an un-amplified version would be better, but Winegard discontinued their un-amped version and I am unable to find another. Radio Shack has an Omni-directional that you could try. Just make sure you can take it back if it doesn't work:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062075&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=family

I think I like the CM 4221 suggestion best. I don't really want to mess around with those gimmicky, amplified omni antennas, especially since some signals are so close and multipath can be an issue here.

My VHF-hi signals are strong enough that I can use just about anything, so I'm mostly concerned with getting a wide UHF beamwidth to pick up those PBS signals off to the sides. The 4221 looks like it has the best potental so I ordered one and we'll see how that goes. Thanks for the recommendations.