I hope I'm not bothering you guys too much here, this is my 3rd post in a row, but I have one final question. If you don't care to read my long essays of posts (I can't help it!) then just skip down to my question at the very bottom. It's in bold.

Here's another update on my situation! The left number represesnts the worst signal I've gotten on terrible weather, the right obviously being the best.

2.1, 2.2, 2.3 - 40-60% (33 on really bad days, but still kicking, probably the most variable of all the signals I'm getting)
4.1 - 50-70%
5.1 - 60-70%
7.1 - 75-85%
9.1 - 50-70%
11.1 - 30-55% (I killed some of CHCH to get 57 and 64)
17.1, 17.2, 17.3 - 70-75%
23.1 - 75%
25.1 - 28-40% (drops out on certain days, fine on others)
26.1, 26.2 - 28-40% (similar to 25.1 but drops more frequently. I couldn't care less.)
29.1, 29.2 - 30-35% (good now, hasn't dropped out, a few blips here sometimes in sound. I couldn't care less.)
36.1 - 30-33% (scrambled picture/sound often but it's coming in)
44.1 - 50%-70%
49.1, 49.2 - 75-80%
51.1, 51.2, 51.3, 51.4 - 28-35% (Yes I finally got ION after some tinkering with cables, but it's really weak. I did however recieve a good burst of it at 70% for a few hours on saturday night. On normal days it skips in and out constantly) (BTW with that same burst I picked up WROC from Rochester at 70! WHEC at 33, and even WXXI at 40! lasted all night).
57.1 - 33-35% (Manges to be stable, but really weak. No dropouts, very occasional minor picture scrambling no big deal)
64.1 - 35-45% (Finally managing to pull in OMNI1 too with cable tinkering. Not bad, a little weak but no dropouts)

Not Getting
41.1 - 25%
66.1 - 25%

To sum it all up reception has greatly improved in my situation. However there are some weak Toronto stations I would like to improve. Notably 41 and 66.

This seems to be more of a cable problem than an antenna issue now. (Again my setup is 1 4bay pointed slightly east of Buffalo South) The cable length seems to only affect the really weak signals (30-40%). If I hook the box downstairs the signals of those stations jumps to 50-60%. I get basically everything down there, even 41 and 66! All the other strong stations seem unaffected.

I already changed a few cable segments to RG6 (around 20-30% of the cable length), but there's still at least 50-60ft of RG59 cable between my basement and the living room.

I can't seem to find a cheap long RG6 cable anywhere. I just got the small segments from the dollar store or old RG6es from a former cable setup in the 80s, before I was even born.

I guess the million dollar question now is:
Will changing the long cable to RG6 make a big difference? Should I be trusting dollar store RG6? Should I worry about the age of the old cable?

I see no need for preamps at this time now. The one 4bay seems to be doing a good job. It's mostly the cables now. I just want to boost the weak Toronto stations (25,41,57,66) and WUTV.