I just recently switched from having a high cable bill to getting all my stuff OTA and online.
First of all you are going to need to put an antenna on the roof. No amount of bossing a little indoor antenna is going to get you a signal. Put an antenna on the roof and you are golden.
Its not hard.
Everything is at radio shack; even the big antennas. They keep them in the back so ask for them.
Get a uhf/vhf combo yagi.
It's a misnomer that HD is UHF only.
Some of it is UHF at the moment but it will go back to VHF after the switchover.
Also, you will probably get ~30 channels. The PBS channels especially kick ass. There are even two 24 kids stations for the little. ones. Very handy.
The HD that you get over the air kicks the crap out of the HD you get over cable.
The broadcast HD stuff is uncompressed and it makes a world of difference.
Reston Peace, if you see this here is a document on the FCC's site that addresses lots of these issues.
They call out HOAs several times. In all instances the burden of proof is on the HOA, not you.
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html