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Tim,
Living in this area (as you do), I am not surprised in regards to the stations you gained by turning your antenna to the SW while losing the other ones that you listed. But the net effect is that you have more (total) channels to view with the antenna facing SW. Some of this is duplication, particularly in primetime. But that is not the case 24/7.
However, I can understand your concern about losing WGPX. Their tower out in Reidsville, NC only operates at 95kw and it's not very tall either. That's why it does a very poor job of reaching many parts of the Triad viewing area. As a result, there are many people in this area who can only watch WGPX on cable or satellite. I have contacted that station in the past; but they don't appear to have any plans to 'build out' the upgrade permit they received some time back from the FCC. It seems the status quo will remain with WGPX due to money issues.
If that station is really important to you, you could consider placing your antenna on a rotator in the future as GroundUrMast mentioned. Or you could get more fancy and get two antennas (facing different directions) (as he also mentioned).....while perhaps using an A/B switch. If you go with a rotator (keeping a single antenna only), I am not aware of any ways to avoid doing a channel scan for the missing channels. But you could have a second auxillary antenna as GroundUrMast posted earlier (with no need to do channel scans). The other option would be returning your antenna to the east position. But in my view, that defeats the purpose of having a long range antenna, such as what you purchased for the Charlotte stations.
So I guess it gets back to WGPX (ION) station and how important it is to you. In my case, I got used to the fact that I was never going to see WGPX (at all) unless I watched them on cable. At my house, it makes no difference at all which way I turn my antenna, I simply can't see WGPX with an antenna. under any circumstances whatsoever. So I just keep my antenna pointed to the SW and it picks up the Triad locals on the side. Even though my antenna is not facing any of the Triad stations, I rarely get pixilations or droputs on them. And you are even closer than I am to most of the Triad stations (towers located in Level Cross/Randleman area). So I would think your prospects of picking up the Triad stations (on the back end of a long range antenna) reliably and without pixilations and dropouts would be good. But if you could view the signal strength on any given channel with a signal meter, that would give more of the hard facts.
Best Wishes with the new antenna. Aside from the WGPX (ION) dilemma, it sounds like things are working out very well with your Winegard HD 8800.
Scott
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