A final update to my saga of getting OTA HD. Maybe someone in my shoes will stumble across this in the future...
I've returned the Radio Shack preamp and have received the ChannelMaster 7777. It's better, but not really making as much fo a difference as I had hoped. It certainly feels quite a bit more well-made than the Radio Shack one. The mast-mounted preamp part is a nice and solid chunk of metal instead of the super-cheap plastic that the RS one was, and the connections just feel and look nice.
But anyway, it's up and running. I'm getting about a 5% boost in signal across the board with it. Not helping the close stations (they were perfect already), but it is helping with a distant one. The signal is much more stable than with the RS one.
So the setup now: AntennasDirect DB4 in an attic window + ChannelMaster 7777 + 50' of RG6 + DishNetwork 722 = solid locals from as far as 75 miles away. I'm probably not going to go to the trouble/hassle/expense of putting the antenna on my roof, so this is how it will stay until Dish can get me my locals in HD.
For anyone getting into OTA HD, the UHF band is so fickle. It takes a lot of patience to get it dialed in just right. Weather and the time of day affect it greatly. Do try to see what you can get in the early morning hours. The reception in the morning seems to always be astounding. I wish the signal strengths would stay like that all the time! I guess the heat and solar interference during the day just kill it. This morning, for instance, I could again pick up all 4 majors in HD, including the 96-mile away CBS tower. Not only that, but I was also actually able to pick up WQAD, which is ABC out of the Quad Cities, IA. Their tower is 140 miles away from my house. 140 miles. That's absurd. It wasn't really watchable, as it would break up every few seconds, but it was there. Too bad those distant ones will dissapear during the day.
So there it is. I can say that I definitely recommend the DB4 antenna. It's proven quite effective even when just in my attic. The CM 7777 seems like a good product too, though I can't say that it's absolutely a 'required' purchase.
