i'm not familiar w/the ron smith aerials antennas, but i use an antenna performance specialties aps-13 to great effect. it is directional, so ya prolly wood need a rotor, unless yer on a fringe area, & all the stations are in one direction.
in my case, i'm ~60 miles nw of the stations i listen to, (wpfw & weta - know them sugarbrie?), & i'm near the bottom of a ~1500' ridge, on the nw side. so, the ridge is between me-n-the stations. w/the aps-13 on the roof - no fancy high-mounted tower or anyting - i get excellent reference-quality sound thru my onix bwd1 w/soap p/s tuner. for info, see:
http://www.antennaperformance.com/
hope this helps, doug s.