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Hello and welcome!
When it comes to weak signal reception, big antennas rule. Pre-amps also help because they help preserve the signal quality right out of your antenna before you start losing some of it to cable losses and other "downstream" components. For optimum reception, look for as much gain as possible on the channels you need (you have a few channels on high-VHF, so you'll need to account for that), and you'll want to find a pre-amp with as low of a Noise Figure rating as possible.
Using separate UHF and VHF antennas can get you a little more gain, but the difference depends on what you are choosing between. For example, the VHF performance on a Winegard HD8200U is actually about the same or better than most VHF-only Yagi antennas. In UHF, the standalone UHF-only antennas do have an edge over most combo antennas. The do-it-yourself Gray-Hoverman designs are also good UHF performers.
Most "good" consumer-grade pre-amps have Noise Figure ratings around 3.0 dB or less. That's as good as it gets for "normal" consumers. For enthusiasts/hobbyists who don't mind spending more money to get every last bit of performance possible, there are also pre-amps available with Noise Figures down in the ~1.0 dB range, but it's a big price jump to get that 1-2 dB improvement.
To go any further means ganging multiple antennas to achieve higher gain.
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