Hello, I wanted to start a new thread about OTA DTV reception in a part of Oregon that has a lot of terrain issues, trees in the way, very little line of sight, etc. I have done quite a bit of research on DTV reception (love tvfool, antennaweb is not very helpful) and have come to the conclusion that we're all learning new tricks and techniques to pull in DTV signals in rural locations that once received "snowy" analog signals.

My location: 44.902616,-122.628105 Altitude about 1000' (Just outside of Silverton, OR, near Sublimity, OR) No line of sight to any DTV station other than the PBS transmitter directly West. Tall trees and a ridge directly to the North are in my way.

To begin, I installed a Winegard Sensar GS2200 amplified antenna 15' off the ground, pointed at a compass heading of 265 degrees per TV Fool. Signal strength on a Digital Stream DTX9950 converter box was below 30. Rotating antenna didn't help much. Data from TV Fool shows that I need to be at least 50' off the ground to clear a ridge to the North.

Before I run off and climb a tree to install a new antenna or consider hiring someone to erect an antenna tower, I wanted to check with others to see if anyone else has solved this type of location-related reception issue. Since i have tall trees around me, will a tall mast really help at all? Which antenna should I use instead of the Sensar? Seems that with DTV signals, reflections and other RF engineer-type topics may impact my reception. (I'm a software engineer, not an RF engineer :-)