Thanks again for your help and info teleview.
Its people like you that make sites like this work.
The antenna showed up from Amazon/Solid Signal today, and I wanted to give an update to my progress. Perhaps it will help someone else.
First thing I did was made a 50' RG6 test lead with some extra coax i had. Put the antenna together, hooked it up direct to the TV with no amps or splitters, and set it on the deck table on the west side of the house. Scanned 23 channels right off the start.
Not to bad for starters, however I noticed half were from Canada... As I was getting ready to take it up to the roof, it dawned on me that in my rush to get it set up, I put it 180* out. lol
Rechecked it in the proper direction, brought in more of the big hitters, ABC, FOX, PBS.. I then hiked it up onto the roof moving it about 20' east and 16' up higher... rescanned, dropped down to 16 channels only getting FOX, and PBS.
That worries me about my desired antenna location and the type of antenna mount I ordered (eve mount) may not work... Moving the antenna west along my upper roof ridge line, made a drastic difference in the channels i could pull in. Where its at now, I pull in all the big hitters (ABC,NBC,CBS,FOX)....except PBS, and it got dark and wet before I could experiment further.
I think the trees are the biggest factor for my situation. But its looking extremely promising that my cable TV days are coming to an end very soon
I'll update again once I put it up on the eve mount and raise it even higher. Ill try to document the process for others benefit.
Thanks again!