Update: The CM7777 arrived last week and I've spent the past few days testing the antenna setup with the new preamp. I can say I'm not disappointed, but I'm not completely impressed either. I have a feeling that something is "missing" with my present setup, whether it be the cheap "Made in China" hardware store balun I'm using, or the 3 foot (RG-6 I think) feed cable from the balun to the preamp. Then again, perhaps my expectations were somewhat inflated cause if I had built an antenna able to pick up 9.1 consistently I would have been jumping for joy!

In the interest of keeping this a true "apples to apples" comparison, the original setup that was used for measurements in the original post was used again for these measurements. Time of day and weather conditions were matched too. Here are the results with the CM7777 attached...

5.1 - digital, 4 out of 4 bars signal strength all the time.
9 - analog, less snow now
9.1 - fluctuates between 1 to 3 bars, 90% reliable
11.1 - 3 bars now
13 - still unwatchable with lots of snow
15 - watchable
17.1,.2,.3 - 3 bars
19 - now crystal clear, almost "digital-like" picture
25 - slight snow
25.1 - wants to come in, but still breaking up
26.1,.2,.3 - 2 bars now...
28 - very snowy but can see what's going on now
29.1,.2 - 3 bars
36 - good picture with just a little snow now
41 - now crystal clear!
47 - good picture, slight snow
48 - washed out picture, no audio
55 - snowy but watchable
61 lots of snow, can barely watch

NEW channels:
5 - very snowy, unwatchable
11 - snowy but watchable
12 - barely comes in, mostly snow
36.1 - comes and goes, 20% reliable, 1 bar when it comes in
44.1 - comes and goes, 10% reliable, signal as hi as 2 bars when it did come in
45 - very snowy but watchable
56 - mostly snow, cannot watch
57 - snowy but watchable
61 - snowy, watchable at times
64.1 comes and goes, 10% reliable, 1 bar when it does come in
69 - snowy but watchable

In closing, the preamp did "lock in" the channel I wanted to get; CFTO. Also, some new channels showed up, and reception for existing analog channels improved.

Perhaps this comparison will help you if you are considering adding a preamp to your setup. But, before you add the preamp, insure that your existing setup uses a hi-quality low-loss balun cause your preamp cannot amplify a signal that is not there!

I'm going to spend some time tweaking my setup, and if any of those tweaks cause a noticeable improvement in signal strength/reception, I'll post them here. Have a good one.. . Bill