The answer is - there is no real answer.
UHF reception depends on a line of sight transmission.
Line of sight transmission VHF vs. UHF is a sound vs. light comparison.
If you shine a light (signal) UHF, it cannot or will not go up one hill and down the next.
It will not shine though a cement building and it has a real hard time shining through a tree with leaves on it or through the side of a hill or a mountain.
Pine needles is even more difficult then a tree with leaves, because a pine tree does not loose all it's needles all at one time.
And basically if you shine a flashlight up into the sky, it will not shine down into a hole (valley).
Because the signal - (UHF) is line of sight, sooner or later it will stop bouncing off the atmosphere and travels out into space. Once you loose the signal - it will not be receivable
The basic way a television station broadcasts a UHF signals is by lowering their antenna to a height of say 500 feet above average terrain on the highest point on a hill above the market they wish to be received in. The lowering of the antenna allows the broadcaster to use more power, due to the fact that with a height increase you have something called height gain - which when factored in - reduces the amount of power that they are allowed to transmit with and the other thing is that when you raise a UHF transmitter stick too high, it skips over the most local people in the market and shines where you do not want it to go. There are places where the people can see the light blinking on the tower and cannot receive the signal. With digital UHF - you are not allowed to broadcast out of your Service Map area into another broadcasters market.
The normal line of sight is somewhere around 48 miles - due to the fact that the curvature of the earth is such that if you built a tower 1000 ft. tall and you built a identical tower 48 miles away and there was nothing between the two towers - such as on the shore of lake Erie, you could see the light blinking on top of the other tower 48 miles away if you was standing on the top of the other tower, even though the normal horizon might only be 28 miles, due to a phenomena called refraction - where the light actually bends around the curvature of the earth.
VHF differs from UHF in the fact that VHF - (sound) WILL go up one hill and down the next, will go around the corner of a building or even through a building. VHF is ground following.
You seem to have some experience with VHF - due to the fact that most television was VHF for the past 60 or so years. You do not seem to grasp the concept of UHF reception.
So the answer is - if you use a 4 bay antenna in a urban location and you remove the screen - which removes the directionality and removes 3 db of gain, you will create more issues then you will solve.
3 db of gain being about half of the signal, you will end up with multipath issues.
Your other advisers has already admitted that there will be a significant amount of noise when you remove the reflector ( screen). Once you hit the signal noise floor, no amount of amplification will help your cause.
There is no real answer due to the fact that multipath will do more harm to your signal than it will do good.
The digital signal that travels through the atmosphere is pretty much the same type of signal as the signals inside of your computer.
It is all 1's and 0's.
When ever something comes along and corrupts your signal. Even if you have a good signal, the corruption will make it unwatchable. Even local UHF radio transmissions such as police and ambulance can affect your reception.
Add to that the fact that the Coax you use might loose 1/2 to 3/4's of the signal between the antenna and the house, makes it most difficult to predict what might happen when you use two antenna's and point them in different directions.
The proper way of receiving a signal is to look directly at the signal.
The only way to look at two different markets is to use a digital antenna rotor and turn your antenna when ever you wish to get better reception.
Depending on how strong the signals are, you might be able to get away with one really good antenna that is not as directional. The theory being that a YAGI antenna can receive signals from the back side - something called the Front To Back Ratio. In electronic's - there is no such thing as Front To Back Ratio - because no one that is educated would ever think of trying to receive a signal off the back side of the antenna.
But the theory does work and the best antenna to do that in a world where all you have is UHF signals is to use a Winegard Model HD9095P
Without a exact address there is no way to accurately predict even with TV fool what you situation might be. Realizing that any building 3 or more stories high or a hill or a tree that is higher then your antenna and between you and the transmitter can and might prevent good reception.
Here is a radar plot for your zip code.
TV Fool
You actually have signals 280* around your location, so no two antenna set up would even work for your situation.
Because most all of your receivable signals are UHF - you do not need a UHF / VHF pre Amplifier. Channel Master CM 7775 pre amplifier - mounted as close to the antenna as possible. This set up will net you the maximum amount of channels - without any interference from VHF signals.
Any signal with a -db of more than -100 will be unwatchable most of the year anyways, So worrying about stations such as WTOK wouldn't be worth your time to try to get.
Use a good communications grade Quad Shield Wire with the proper connectors and make sure to weatherproof all connections. Belden Series 3 1829 AC wire is a very good wire to use.
My advice would also be to use a RCA Digitally remote controlled Antenna Rotor such as the one sold at Lowes for a price of about $69.00
Since it is programmable, all your wife will have to do is look at a chart you can make for which button to push for which channel and it will return to that particular location every time you push the button, which would simplify the situation of someone no bright enough to know where to position the rotor to receive a station or be able to use the antenna point signal strength meter.
Welcome to 1949!
