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Originally Posted by MetHerb
What I noticed on the maps is if I lowered the antenna to only 10', the signals seem stronger:
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WSBK is now -11.9, WGBX is now -6.3 and WGBH is now -1.6.
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When you get closer to the ground and the signals are coming in at a very shallow angle, you DO get a slight increase in signal strength due to ground conductivity. A small amount of the signal hitting the Earth-air interface will travel along that surface, and if your antenna is close enough to the ground, there is a bit more signal to be picked up.
HOWEVER, this only works if the ground along that signal path is wide open. If there are any buildings, trees, or other obstacles in the way, then the ground-wave gets disrupted and you won't see that much of a signal gain.
This ground effect is generally pretty weak, so you might notice a big change in signals that are weak to begin with (down in the red or gray zones on your list), but the stronger signals will not see that much gain. A few of your channels, like WWLP, lose a lot of signal when you go with a lower antenna (dropping from 33.1 to 22.3 dB NM), so the trade-off probably isn't worth it. In most neighborhoods, there are too many surrounding structures to make this "ground gain" work effectively, so it's not something I would count on, although in certain situations (open farm lands or fields surrounding the home) it has been shown to work.