My girlfriend lives in a concrete box apartment on the north side of Seattle. Her apartment is on the north side of the building and the few windows she has face west. She has an antenna - simple rabbit ears with a UHF loop - sitting on top of her entertainment center. Its in her living room, basically in dead center for the apartment. Most of the television towers in Seattle are located on the top of Queen Anne, which is southwest from where she lives. Some stations broadcast from Bellevue (to the east) and Tacoma to the south. Her reception is poor at best, although she can get most of the programs she wants without too much difficulty.

Its clear that being in the center of a concrete building is bad. I'm also pretty certain that outdoor antennas are frowned upon.

My question is, how can we maximize antenna reception in her apartment? Cold winters so leaving a window slightly propped open is not an option. Drilling holes is not an option. The ledge on her bedroom window is short, ~4 inches. I was thinking of putting a coaxial extender on her antenna but does that mean I also have to put an amplifier to prevent the signal from degenerating? Cost is an issue in this case.

Here's a diagram of the apartment for reference:

first off, see what reception you get by putting the rabbit ears pointing towards the towers inside the bedroom window, just get a long enough piece of cable and an F-81 (male to male connector) if it improves at all, then consider buying a newer antenna, or possibly building one, there are threads on here you could search for. Are you looking for ATSC digital reception, or the old school NTSC? I know that ATSC is really strong inside seattle, strong enough for some tuners in TVs ive installed to work without an antenna. Also, if you can figure out a way to get the coax cable outside the window (cleverly hidden hole?) you could put out an antenna, its illegal to stop you from getting TV feeds, even in rentals... from back when TV was a public service tool... thats why you see directv dishes hanging off apartment balconies. Aim for Queen Anne, and if youre going digital, hope Tacoma is in your range, for FOX digital.