Antenna/Reception question

[emoonshiner]

I've been reading some of the posts here. I have gone to tvfool and antenna selector. The antenna selector recommends the Winegard HD8200U for my location, along with a pre-amp and rotor. That's a huge antenna! My big problem is that I live in a heavily forested and mountainous area about 70 miles west of Washington DC. On clear days my reception is spotty, and on cloudy days my reception is better. I have a Channel Master (model unknown) mounted on a mast about 2 feet or so above the roof peak. The total boom length is about 9 - 10 feet. Am also using a rotor, but no pre-amp. Running the signal through RG-6 coax and splitting to two TV's. Using the Tivax set-top boxes.

Looking for advice on how to best optimize my reception. For instance - on this bright sunny day, I can't watch football because I get no reception. I can't even get the nearby stations to come in. If it were cloudy I wouldn't have this problem.

[tigerbangs]

Please read" tips for getting good antenna advice" at the beginning of the forum, and provide the information requested there. Please repost your question after you have the necessary information.