Yaamon, the Channel Bastard 4228 can be used for analog signals as well as HDTV. In fact any UHF antenna built in the day of analog only signals can be used for HDTV. All this hype about a antenna being HDTV Ready is nothing more than propaganda. Channel Bastard used to market a 7 foot parabolic dish (still have one) and that was outstanding for UHF. Literally created pictures when none were previously present on many channels. That would work great with the new HDTV channels on UHF.
You are correct about twin lead being more susceptible to noise and interference from equipment. Coax has better shielding for that. But the best grades of 300 ohm twin lead lose less signal than RG 6 and especially RG 58 or 59 and will result in a better picture especially for fringe reception. We did head to head tests in years past that confirmed this. And this weekend I tried it again with Ch. 15, a new LPTV station in Buffalo. Used the same antenna and compared the picture quality with RG 6 and 300 ohm. Twin lead was better and reduced the snow.
DU 2772, the amplifier will help with more distant signals but it could also overload your system when it is in use in close proximity to a local signal. If I recall correctly the CN Tower has most of your local TV transmitting antennas. If you are a few miles away from it you probably won't have any trouble with an amplifier overloading your TV's circuits. I tried an amp once but I was only about 4 to 5 miles away from local TV towers and they overloaded my tuner. Made things worse even for distant stations because the local channels came in on everything!
Ghosting is caused by the signal being transmitted from a TV tower being reflected in one or more locations. It could be a hill or very tall, large trees or buildings. Since you are in the city of Toronto I'd hazard a guess that most of the high rises are in the direct path of your home and the desired stations you'd like to receive. In this case the only way to reduce ghosting is to try reorienting the antenna until you can find the best picture. The sure fire way to solve the problem is to mount your antenna much higher but if you are close to a lot of skyscrapers, that may not be practical or cost effective and still may not solve the problem.
