I don't know about that last point. I live about 45 miles from Philly and 55 miles from NYC. I get pretty much all of the stations from both with minimal drop and I have a $35 antenna inside in my attic.
Try the "coat hanger antenna" (google it). It's directional enough to be effective. There are some tweaks you can make to it to adjust how directional it is. (Adding more elements, or doubling it mainly.)
It's very cheap so you can experiment.
You'll need one of those impedance converter thingies to convert from twin lead to coax.