Some follow up comments from last month ...
So the 43XG arrived a few days ago and I've been testing with it. Haven't been able to receive WKTB signals at all. No signal levels seen. The current antenna mounts are near the northeast corner of the house just with roof nails in the way. The house runs is roughly S to N.
There must be something blocking signals from WKTB the next community over. Large trees are my assumption.
The next step is to relocate one of the antennas to the southeast side of the attic. More trees exist there in both our's and the neighbor's yard to the south, but fewer large trees to the east in other communities. That is my hope.
BTW, the 43XG doesn't seem to work as well as the $20 home-built DB4 antenna when pointed in the same direction. It is also harder to mount in the attic since it needs to be supported at 2 points. The db4 has a single nail for a mount. How well any antenna works seems to be extremely localized. I know you've been saying that.
I think the 43xg would be easier to mount outside and it is definitely better made for that use. If the inside mount doesn't help, I'll have to strongly consider that option. I should also point out that the 43xg is a much, much, much better antenna than the "clothes hanger antenna" making the rounds on the internet for a directional receiver requirement.
I've tested both pointing directly at WKTB and at the cluster of transmitter towers 18-ish miles SE with both antennas. The DB4 receives signals from 69 channels, including 5 important VHF stations and the 43xg only gets 58 channels. The signal levels are about the same for the those UHF stations both receive, but the DB4 did tend to lock on weaker channels more often. I don't know if this is good or not, since that lock seemed to fade in and out causing loss of audio and video. Almost getting a station isn't good.
I should also mention that WYGA-LD comes in fairly strong - at least 3 bars of signal. Too bad there isn't anything on those 4 channels but the "off-air" color bars. Looks like buying some longer coax is in my plans for today.
I also tested using a splitter to join the signals from both antennas during these tests. It definitely dropped the signal levels regardless of whether they were pointed in the same or a different direction.
I'll update more here
http://blog.jdpfu.com/2012/08/03/diy...nt-and-results as new thoughts come to me.