Bastrop County sits roughly thirty miles east of where almost all of these signals originate. That single fact explains most of what people find frustrating about radio and television here.
Distance does most of it. A station that is bulletproof in central Austin is working hard by the time it reaches Smithville. The further east and south you go in the county, the more marginal the Austin signals become.
Terrain does the rest. The Colorado River valley and the rises either side of it create real shadows. Two houses a mile apart can have completely different results on the same station.
And then there are the pines. Dense tree cover attenuates higher frequencies, which means UHF television and, to a lesser degree, FM. It is worse in summer with full leaf.
Getting an antenna above the roofline and above nearby tree cover does more than buying a larger one at the same height.
Nearly everything is west of us, so a directional antenna aimed that way outperforms an omnidirectional one, and rejects noise from the other three quarters.
One channel here is VHF and the rest are UHF. An antenna specified for both is the only way to get everything.
KLZT and KHIB are licensed to Bastrop, so they behave quite differently from the Austin signals and are usually the most reliable things on the dial here.