[GroundUrMast]

The Leaf is a UHF only design. That does not mean that it wont receive some VHF signal... just that it was not optimized to do so. If the amplifier does not overload it can isolate the poor SWR match at VHF frequencies from the coax down-lead. That may or may not sound like a bunch of 'blah-blah-blah techno-speak', but my point is that I'm glad that your neighbor was able to make a Leaf work... Very easily, they could have had a much different result. It sounds like they had to work at finding a location that worked... which is often true for antennas that are a better match to the conditions.

A 'clean' outdoor installation can be expected to have the conditions predicted in your report, whereas the variability of attics, trees and other structures force us to do quite a bit of speculating. Given your desire to attic mount, I have to be very conservative when considering the size of antenna to suggest. If your attic is a poor location for reception even the large antennas you've spec'd may fail to produce reliable results. On the other hand, if your attic is one of the more reception friendly ones, the two large antennas will give you a great deal of margin (with no need for any accessory amplification). The large all channel antenna suggested by teleview would provide a better chance for reception of KSFW, a low power station that currently carries infomercials.

If you want to go with a smaller solution, in the attic, you increase your odds of problems with reception reliability. If you were spec'ing a system for outdoor mounting in a location free of obstructions such as tress and structures, I'd certainly lean toward a more compact solution.