Adding a pre-amp can help at getting those distant stations that come & go. I however would recommend that if you do that, that you either turn it off for local stations (if using 1), or have the pre-amp on one antenna pointed at Fort Wayne, & not amplify the one for the local stations. I have 2 antennas in my setup, due to 1 station transmitting south of me, & that antenna is needed to lock in the signal, as the main one will not pointed at Chicago. The antenna for 1 station is not amplified, while the one for Chicago is (the full powers don't need it, but select low powers do), & I have that diplexed into a Winegard CC-7870 combiner, while my pre-amplifier is an RCA TVPRAMP1R I bought from Menards. It works good, but I would say that the Channelmaster CM-7777 would be more promising if the extra gain is important. Before I go any further, but do you receive WLIO? That is your only VHF in that list that is local. If you can't get that one, those DIY UHF antennas (if they're all UHF antennas) may not work with this antennas. For that I would add the Antennacraft Y5-7-13 antenna for that. The other option if you're crafty enough, is to construct a small antenna just for RF 8 (WLIO 35.1). Also based on the last TSReader reading, it shows WLIO being dual 720pHD, & NBC must look like crap to only run about 8mbps, & downconverted to 720p from NBC's native 1080i resolution. Fox on the subchannel gets close to 11mbps, & usually will work for 720p.
Anyway, I'll let you look at my
TV Fool chart, the sole station that I need a UHF antenna for WYIN at 184° while all my Chicago stations are at 330° & 332°. The pre-amp is needed for WWME-LD on RF 39, WESV-LD on RF40, W25DW-D on RF 25, & WOCK-CD on RF 4 (my antenna is optimized for Lo-VHF). Like you, you want Fort Wayne stations, & for me, I want to get South Bend stations at a later date. At least in Fort Wayne that the networks are all on full power stations (including Fox, which recently went on a subchannel to WISE-TV). Unfortunately since 1995, ABC has been on a low power signal, along with CW & MNT in South Bend, & won't get those networks from there. A pre-amp on my main antenna has helped me get WSBT on RF 22 pointed at Chicago (used to also get WNDU on RF 16 when that station was analog, along with WSBT-TV when they were analog on RF 22). I also included an attachment of my antenna array.
