[Jeffhs]

Bryan, I know what you mean regarding the difference DTV makes, especially with near-fringe area reception. I live in such an area for Cleveland TV (roughly 35 miles from the city's downtown area and a bit further from the TV stations, all of which transmit from a southwestern Cleveland suburb) and was surprised when I connected a DTV indoor antenna to my flat screen. Every Cleveland station but two came in amazingly well -- no pixelization, dropouts or other problems; in fact, the pictures on all stations were better than I ever remember seeing in analog NTSC or B&W. The two stations I do not receive with the UHF DTV antenna are the FOX and CBS affiliates in Cleveland, the subchannels of which are Antenna TV and MeTV, respectively -- my two favorite stations; so I stored the indoor antenna and went back to cable, as I mentioned in a previous post.

How big is your DTV antenna, and do you have a mast-mounted preamplifier ahead of it? The amplifier might strengthen the signals just enough that you will be able to watch NBC, and all other Baltimore stations, without losing the signal as you did the Saturday night you were watching SNL.

Does your antenna also receive Washington, D.C. stations? Baltimore is not that far from DC (can't be more than perhaps 20 miles -- in fact, most folks in either city can get the other's stations with no problems), so I would think if you are getting all stations from one area, you should see the other area's stations just as well if you are using a high-power antenna with an amplifier, unless of course your area's geography is such that you are blocked from OTA reception of DC's stations using an antenna.