Ken
RTFM
And then ask questions. The current FCC apparently employs marketers rather than engineers to write their documentation so the info is at times vague and overly simplified and rarely addresses specific questions.
Generally speaking, if you currently use an antenna to receive signal, you will need a converter to use the new “digital” signal with your existing antenna and analog tv.
So repair your antenna if you like, but just putting a new 75ohm cable to the existing antenna might make it as good with the converter/tuner as it was with the analog signal. Or it might not. As long as the signal you want is as close as the antenna-farms on top of Capitol and First hill you might be fine.
Antennas used for current tv frequencies in VHF will probably pick up the weaker digital signals (or the strong stations) ok but some remote stations which were viewable yet not perfect, may not be receivable at all. The cliff effect is the reason.
This article tells the tale.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/technology/personaltech/24basics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Some of the links within that article may be of use as well.
http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
Enter your address (and uncheck the “send me spam” buttons, and it will give you the details of where and which direction the digital signals will be coming from and make suggestions as to type of antenna.
Just a note, pretty much all of us who have a battery operated tv will find it useless after 2/2009 making it useless also for the disaster kit I kept it in.
The whole business seems to be a massive scam perpetrated by the FCC for the benefit of the Cable companies and those who bought the frequencies previously held in common as property of all citizens, but a greater crime had already rendered them useless as public service/ public information conduits.