Yellow zone, omni vs. directional

[flyleaf]

I live in a "yellow zone" and all my stations are under 10 miles away, at compass headings 281 to 282 degrees. Antennaweb says I should get a small, multidirectional antenna. But since all my stations are in one direction, could (or should) I get a directional instead?

--flyleaf

[winegard]

You are much better off with a directional antenna versa a omni directional because there is less chance of having reflected signals being picked up by the directional antenna. These reflected signals cause multi pathing of signals and if the primary signal is not at least 2-3 times stronger than a reflected signal the digital tuner will not lock onto that channel. Not knowing you location it is hard to recommend an antenna for your situation. If all of your TV stations are using an RF Channel between channel 7-51 to broadcast their digital signal on then you can use a either an FV-HD30, HD-1080, or HD7694P.

[flyleaf]

It looks like my channels' RF channels run from 11 to 50. I am in the 53713 zip code, roughly at 43° 2'13"N and 89°22'38"W, if you'd like to provide a more specific recommendation.

So why are there all these antennas that leave out lower VHF? It appears that would work for me, but wouldn't I just want to cover all the bases in case a new station comes to my area someday? I'm curious why some are made this way.

[winegard]

The reason antennas are made for specific ranges is to maximize the gain (or signal strength) on the desired channels. An antenna's peak performance is in the middle of it's channel range and the smaller the channel range the higher of a peak it has.

Think of it as a curve...

The further you stretch that curve the shorter the peak becomes. In your case an antenna that picks up lo-VHF will move the peak to the left while also shortening the peak, giving you less gain on the higher UHF frequencies that you need.

That is kind of a general way to look at it and there are a lot of factors involved, but I hope this explains that part of it. This is also why you see antennas made in the USA, such as ours, maximized for channels 2-51 compared to antennas manufactured overseas and imported which range to channel 69 which is not needed.

[flyleaf]

So lower VHF and upper UHF are not needed? Do you mean, in my particular case? Or is this a change that came with the DTV 2009 changeover?

And knowing my location now, do you stand by your original recommendations?