As promised here is our information from our RadioShack antenna shootout.

The first thing we learned was that no indoor antenna will work consistently within the residences of Mountain Home. Forget about fancy Intellegent Antennas, ones shaped like flying saucers or any of the other space age and sometimes not so space age looking devices. I tried several of our selection of antennas and promptly stopped delivery of any more and sent the ones back that we had in stock.

We are over 50 miles away from the broadcast towers and to ad insult to injury there is a tall land mass in between both. Standard Definition Television signals are mostly line of sight but at the same time love to bounce off large objects. Sometimes, this gives receivers that do not have a clear view a marginal signal; other times bounced signals will corrupt a perfectly good signal with a ghost. We have all seen the ghosting problems on TV signals over the air; they are usually accompanied by lots of snow.

We have found that there is a definite dividing point with any antenna setup on the other side of Highway 84, towards Rattle Snake stage stop and the Old Oregon trail road. All bets are off in this area. This area shields the Boise stations by an even larger land mass that juts out from the Danskins.

We then proceeded to outdoor antennas. Our basic fold out VU-90 that we lovingly call the Mountain Home model does an outstanding job in Mountain Home this side of I-84. Yes, it's large to put up and needs a pole. I tried a basic 15 foot pole and then a 20 foot with little change. Obstructions are the one issue that might require the installer to use a higher pole. They can be things like a neighbor's roof or large trees.

We also have a VU-190 model that we call the Bruneau model, it is rated for 190 miles in perfect conditions, which Bruneau is not. You will have the best chance of getting some coverage with this model and if you want the absolute best we have larger models.

All of these antennas are rated for High Definition and for the most part if you get the standard definition channels, chances are, you will get great High Definition coverage.

The second set of antennas we tried were the smaller disc type powered antennas. We have two models, our favorite is our directional model that includes an arm for installation, this is great if you don't want to raise a pole. This unit does well in the city area but will fall short as you approach the Danskins. In addition the directional model 150-2187 is 10 dollars cheaper and is the easiest to install on your roof or house as long as it is pointing at Boise and is unobstructed.

Next time I will cover the proper installation.

Cheers.