ANTOP Omnidirectional HDTV Antenna

I had purchased a Terk amplified indoor directional antenna for use while I was living in an apartment and was unable to mount a permanent outdoor antenna. It got the job done fairly well as long as i was willing to spin it in the direction of the more distant towers (20+ miles away). When I had finally moved into a house I attempted to continue using it but something about the structure of the house didn't work well with the antenna. I figured it was time for an upgrade. I did a lengthy amount of research on antennas and most reviews had led me to the outdoor directional antennas that had the usual metal "ray-gun" (think I've seen people refer to these as yagi-style?) or metal grate appearances. I'm nestled in a Buffalo, NY northtown so I've got towers both to the north and south of my house (including a few Canadian ones apparently). A directional antenna didn't seem like the best choice considering these circumstances. Many of the omni-directional antennas I found were primarily for indoor use or short ranges which wasn't ideal. When I finally came across this antenna I was a bit skeptical because the guarantees seemed too good to be true and because it doesn't seem to have a comparable alternative from many of the other popular antenna makers. A lot of people think this thing looks odd but it blends in with my white vinyl siding better than most of the antennas I had considered. It's not a massive unit that you can see from a hundred yards away. I mounted it at the peak of one of the gable ends on my house (a ranch-style) just under the eave. It sits so nicely between my house and my neighbor's house that you'd never notice it unless you were really looking for it. The installation was easy, if you're a weekend DIY'er then you can mount it in about an hour or less. Running the coaxial cable was the harder part but others may experience differing degrees of difficulty based on their wiring needs. I haven't found that the reception has been affected by the weather. I've gotten the same reception in 20F temperatures that I got in 80F temperatures. The wind, rain and snow haven't seemed to affect anything though the antenna is a bit shielded from those elements due to where I mounted it. The picture quality is good and there is not any interference on most of the channels though I only run it to one TV so I'm not dealing with issues relating to a split signal. The antenna doesn't pick up much of anything aside from the stations that are 6 miles or closer unless the amplifier is on. When the amplifier is on I can get great signal quality from stations that are over 40 miles away. The switch on the amplifier seems to operate the filtering mechanism but I don't notice any difference with it on. It might be more valuable in an urban environment. I can verify that it picks up channels in all directions due to the tower placement in my area. Overall there were no let-downs for me on this. All the major guarantees seem to be true and I haven't found any major drawbacks. Assuming this thing lasts 7+ years then it was worth the money.