Since you're working through trees I'd stay away from the Yagi antennas and go with a grid. Actually, if you know the frequency, a parabolic grid would probably be optimal.
TV stations should be horizontally polarized.
The tower may be using a bit of downtilt, so if you can get ahold of the station and find out, you'll be able to calculate the area you're in. For example, line-of-sight is only about 2 miles. FM isn't good with atmospheric bounce depending on frequency. In the 1.9 to 2.1 gHz frequency range, you'd be practically limited to about 10 miles with a parabolic grid and repeater/amplifier.
When you drop down to the VHF/UHF ranges, you do start getting a bit of atmospheric deflection (gHz range just shoot off into space) and the longer the wavelength, the better at penetrating and otherwise overcoming obstacles (reference ELF).
I would definitely use a grid at the minimum since tree penetration is an issue.
Josh
TV stations should be horizontally polarized.
The tower may be using a bit of downtilt, so if you can get ahold of the station and find out, you'll be able to calculate the area you're in. For example, line-of-sight is only about 2 miles. FM isn't good with atmospheric bounce depending on frequency. In the 1.9 to 2.1 gHz frequency range, you'd be practically limited to about 10 miles with a parabolic grid and repeater/amplifier.
When you drop down to the VHF/UHF ranges, you do start getting a bit of atmospheric deflection (gHz range just shoot off into space) and the longer the wavelength, the better at penetrating and otherwise overcoming obstacles (reference ELF).
I would definitely use a grid at the minimum since tree penetration is an issue.
Josh