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The 2016 is a pretty minimalist antenna for channels 7-69. I think you're lucky to be picking up stations as weak as KQCA using such a small antenna. I am also concerned that you may experience channel stability problems (pixellation and/or drop-outs) from time-to-time (e.g., in bad weather, windy conditions, when the seasons change, etc.). I know you're fighting the antenna size issue, but you will probably save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration if you get the right antenna now instead of having to revisit this again later.
You don't need the worlds largest TV antenna, but you don't want to go too small, either. There are mid-size antennas that have better performance than the 2016 and are more appropriate for your situation. I hope there's a middle ground somewhere that you and your wife can settle upon.
BTW, please remind your wife of how smart she is for getting free, high quality, high definition broadcast television. All you need is an antenna to tap into this great free service. It's a far better deal for what you get than the hundreds or thousands of dollars it costs for cable or satellite TV ($50/mo x 12 months = $600/yr, or $3000 for 5 years).
Having said all that, adding a mast-mounted pre-amp to your setup might improve things a bit (no matter what antenna you end up with). A pre-amp will overcome any coax, splitter, and tuner inefficiencies (losses) that occur after the amp in your receiver chain. The amp cannot alter the intrinsic sensitivity of the antenna, but it can preserve as much of the signal quality as possible before the signal starts "slipping back into the noise" while making its way down into your receiver.
Amps always introduce a tiny bit of noise themselves in the process of boosting a signal, so it's very important to choose an amp with a low Noise Figure spec. Any amp with a Noise Figure of around 3.0 dB or less is considered good. Some good amps to consider are the Winegard AP-8700, Channel Master 7777, and the Antennacraft 10G202. Beware of no-name amps or ones that do not publish a Noise Figure spec at all, because chances are that their noise levels are so high that they almost negate the benefit of having an amp in the first place.
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