Gigawatt - Interesting item about the twin-lead from the pre-amp touching the antenna and causing some signal problems. My pre-amp is mounted on the antenna itself with only about 6 inches of twin-lead that never touches the antenna except at the connectors. MY setup is in my attic, so I don't need to worry about wind moving the twin-lead.
The Yagi versus Bay discussion is interesting in that everything I've read previously and the antenna radiation diagrams I've seen for some consumer antennas generally show the Bay/Bowtie antennas to be very directional compared to a Yagi with a corner reflector. That's why a Yagi w/ corner reflector is a better choice if the signals you are trying to receive don't all originate from a single azimuth. They generally have a broader beamwidth.
All that is not to say that you can't wipp the seasonal multi-path with a higher gain antenna w/ a better front-to-back ratio, and a better (higher gain, lower S/N ratio) pre-amp. But, it can turn into an expensive trial-and-error exercise.
My one channel problem is doing well right now. Since the Dish 811 265 software upgrade, I've been able to lock that channel anytime, any day and w/ a signal strength around 78% (4 points better than before the 265 upgrade). I'm still on track to install my new Winegard 9018 Yagi antenna and see if I can improve the signal strength of all of my channels. However, the antenna install is in the queue after the new, built-in micro-wave oven install, and the install of 2 new bathroom fans. Got to keep you know who happy first or I can't play with my toys (even though she watches the HDTV and DTV I've set up more than I do).
