Thanks Rabbit. I had it in the back of my mind that the pre-amp Noise Figure NF is yet another component for me to optimize. Data on the common ones is sometimes hard to find. Here is an effort to condense NF values from commonly (and less-commonly) available pre-amps all into one spot.
CM-7777/7778:
"typically less than 2 dB"
https://www.channelmaster.com/TV_Ant..._p/cm-7777.htm
Winegard LNA-200 "Boost XT"
"1 dB typical"
http://www.winegard.com/amplifiers
but probably overstated according to multiple users
Antennas Direct Juice
"1.5dB on VHF, < 3dB on UHF"
AVS forum post:
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/25-hdt...ce-preamp.html
RCA TVPRAMP1R:
Low VHF - 3.9 dB
High VHF - 3.1 dB NF
UHF - 2.6 dB NF
(from Pete Higgins post, quoting ADTech on this tvfool forum:
https://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=13530)
KT-200
0.4 dB
http://www.kitztech.com/KT200.html
Research Communications Pre-amps
0.4 dB
configurable for different combinations of VHF-lo, VHF hi, UHF
http://www.researchcomms.com/hdtv.html
It looks to me like the KT-200 might be worth a try for my situation, especially since Research Comms is in the UK. Do you guys have experience with the KT-200s? Is the 0.4 dB NF legit?