Need help choosing a preamp!

[slsl123]

Hello everyone! Thanks for a great forum. I just cut the cable and am excited to receive FREE OTA broadcasts in High Def for the first time. I built my own DB8 style antenna from some plans I found on instructables.com. I placed it in a space over my garage ( probably about 12' off the ground) and have it aimed at about 15 degrees. This seemed to be the angle where I received all channels the strongest. I ran about 50' of newer rg6 coax straight to a Sharp 26" LCD TV. There are some trees in the direction the antenna is pointing but they are hardwoods and the leaves are down. I'm able to bring in 8.1, 6.1, 13.1, and 10.1. 51.1 barely comes in with a signal strength of about 9 on the TV's signal strength meter. I picked up a Radio Shack 15-259 preamp and was able to get 23.1 and 35.1 as well but 23.1 would drop every 30 seconds or so and come back on a few seconds later. I didn't really do any research before I picked up this amp - I just grabbed the most powerful one they had. It seems to work best with the "power booster" switch off. When this switch was on channel 6.1 would pixelate every now and then. I thinking of returned this amp and trying to find a higher quality amp that meets my needs. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!!

BTW here is my TVFool report: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 0205012339