Current Set up: Winegard HD7696P - > ~100ft of cable~> Channel Master CM3418 8-Port Distribution Amplifier
So I just moved here and currently have the antenna pointing at 100 degrees about 30 ft off the ground. Right now I'm getting 27 channels and I'm really happy with that. The concern I have is the consistency of getting those channels when the weather gets worse and the leaves come out. Would a pre-amp help to get a better/more reliable signal from the front and back end of the antenna? I'm looking at the one below. Any help/advice/criticism would help. Thanks in advance!
Line of sight on the front is pretty good. ~100ft to a small 1 row tree line. The land grades down about 30ft from the antenna location to where the tree line starts. Back is a few feet off of the 1 row tree line. I trimmed back several branches to get a better line of sight. It continues on into fields after both tree lines.
You could reasonably expect to improve your noise margin by swapping out the distribution amp for an antenna-mounted preamp with a passive splitter, probably by up to 5-6 dB. Whether or not that will be enough to make a difference that is significant enough to be worth doing is questionable.