Rabbit, ADTech, Tower Guy --- I would like to thank you all for your assistance.
Based upon your advice, I have made my purchases -- and for the level of system I ended up getting, I think I ended up with a bargain. I believe the system I purchased is about the most powerful one out there available to the ordinary consumer.
I ended up with the WineGard HD8200U clone -- the Solid Signal HD 8200XL -- for 1/2 the price @ $69
Also the Channel Master 7777 pre-amp for $54 - new from solid signal.
Believe it or not, Radio Shack is running a clearance special on their basic model of Antenna Rotor and control box for $29 (evidentially, they are getting out of the antenna business) - plus another $8 for the 100' of control wire.
A set of the 12" antenna mast wall mounts for $13 -- also through radio shack.
2 - 4' sections of mast @ $8 apiece.
Another $15 in coax stand-offs for the antenna mast, grounding block for the coax cable, wall pass-through for the coax, ect ect.
Total investment -- less than $175 for a complete antenna system.
An investment that will take about a year to pay for itself, given the $12 /mo cost for my basic-basic cable service which only provides the local channels that my antenna will now provide.
I will have to wait until after the week-end to mount this system --- snow event due here over the weekend up here in the wilds of northern NY
I will let you all know after the installation how it turned out
A couple final questions if I may......
Firstly -- I intend to re-use the Coax cable that DirecTV left behind -- it's really high quality stuff -- but my question is....that Coax cable has a tiny, separate ground wire molded into the protective jacket...what would I connect that ground wire to, and should it be grounded anyways, given the grounding block at the antenna entrance ?
Second -- at a later time, if I choose to add more televisions and decide that I need to upgrade my system with a distribution amplifier....is there one that is particularly suited to work with the Channel Master 7777 (given the high-gain output of the CM 7777) -- or will any radio-shack version work ?
Again, thank you all --- you assisted in my decision-making process tremendously.
Karl