Being the first in my sub with an antenna

I would first build some sandbag and fox hole machine gun bunkers.

I bet a bunch of the houses have satellite dishes on them. What's so different about an antenna from a satellite dish?

Nothing, and the rights of homeowners to erect BOTH (or either) are protected by federal law that has taken that authority away from HOAs.

BTW, that 12 ft figure is NOT within the jurisdiction of any HOA. It is up to any code or permitting function of a municipality (etc) to specify that (if at all) due to structural concerns (guy wires, support, etc).

FWIW, my subdivision's CCRs also prohibit antennas, but our (I'm on the board) attorney made clear to the board that the provision was unenforcable.

why not try an attic antenna first? they often work well if youre within about 30 or 40 miles from the tv transmitters...plus an attic antenna will last forever since its shielded from all the nasty weather, birds, etc etc....

whats your zip code? maybe we can give u some antenna tips....

...that you can see. I bet someone there already has an indoor or attic mounted antenna.

As was mentioned ^ try something small first - you may not need to go whole hog on the antenna project.

I am anti yuppie and for some reason I love Big Ugly Antenna's.

My brother lives in one of these so called Sub Divisions. They do not have a home owners association or anything. You pay for your own house and you do as you wish. The house is on about a 60 x 100 lot.

I keep telling him to put up a outdoors antenna - due to the fact that he has two wide screen televisions and subscribes to the Dish Network.

His biggest problem is that he wants the High Def Channels - but he doesn't like the big bill. He cut back on his package and got the high def channels, but lost many of the other channels in the process. Plus - where he lives, the high def channels are not in a format that supports wide screen television.

At the same time, he is less than 20 miles from WTAE, KDKA, and 4 other stations that he could receive if he had a outdoor antenna and a rotor.

He has a Radio Shack antenna in his attic - with the reflector removed - because it was too big to fit in the attic in the direction that he needed to point it - East of his location. Probably more than likely - his wife didn't approve of the antenna being in the attic.

If it was my house, I would have the largest - most gaudy antenna that you could buy, just to show my neighbors that I am the person that has the best antenna. Go ahead and pay your $200 a month for high speed internet, television, and telephone. I got a $200 antenna and I get my local television for free! Even when the cable goes out - my antenna still works!

When I drive down the road, I don't look to see what the outside of the house looks like. I look to see what kind of antenna they have on their roof.

I envy a person that lives on a hill that is higher than all the surrounding terrain and I envy a person that lives withing distance of 12 or more local stations.

My pitiably 4 station reception ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS - isn't even worth putting up a $200 antenna. I can't even get the CW or the Indy channel.

then it's not HD.

In my neighborhood, the only person to say anything to me was a fellow AVS Forum participant who lives one street over!

A couple miles from my home is a neighborhood that starts in the $600k's. On of them has a Yagi antenna on the roof visible from a main road.

That said, it's a lot easier, logistically, to install and maintain an antenna in the attic, so I recommend trying that first. Run the coax through the entry and down the stairs first to test reception. My outdoor antenna has already required servicing after only a year in the weather.

Also note that there are a lot of very compact outdoor UHF antennas available now that do surprisingly well for DTV. If you aren't trying to pick up distant VHF stations, you can probably get away with one of those.

See the technical antenna threads for more information.

i am not at all surprised that u only got one year of good service....every 'consumer grade' outdoor tv antenna i have ever seen is POORLY MADE JUNK! and i have used and installed a LOT of them over the years....they are almost all very flimsy, made of thin poor quality materials with no regard to corrosion control, etc etc...WINEGARD, CHANNEL MASTER, RCA, etc....they all suck and they should be ashamed of themselves claiming to be a high quality product...bs!

u have to spend big money (like $400 or more) on commercial quality brands like BLONDER-TONGUE to get something well made with decent longevity designed in....

this is why i always suggest an attic as a first choice location before going outdoors with a tv antenna....even the garbage antenna products from 'name brands' like WINEGARD, CHANNEL MASTER, RCA, etc will last forever there!