[phone man]

Something just isn't right here. With the U8000 pointed north or even NNW, you should be getting all the stations, eleven by my count with the possible exception of the VHF stations, on your TVfool report clear down to WTAM. Broadcast towers only 50 miles away, line of sight and a signal of 15 (NM)dB or higher shouldn't be a problem at all if all the hardware is working the way it should.
J.C's suggested method of picking up the distant statons from the front side of an 8 bay antenna, and the closer stations thru the back side of the same antenna worked very well for me since the stations in question were nearly 180 degrees apart. You also have the advantage of LOS in both directions.
I read you have a 70' coax run with one barrel connector going to one TV. Correct? Can you try another TV? If the results are still poor and the Phillips works fine on the same TV and coax run, I'd suspect there's a problem with that particular U8000. There's no reason a healthy 8 bay antenna should get zero channels pointed north at your location.